THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


KARI  THE  ELEPHANT 


KARI    AND    KOPEE   AND   I 


KARI 

THE  ELEPHANT 


BY 

DHAN   GOPAL  MTJKERJI 

Illustrated  by 
J.    E.    ALLEN 


NEW  YORK 
E.  P.  BUTTON  &  COMPANY 

681  FIFTH  AVENUE 


Copyright.  1922. 
By  E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 


All  rights  reserved 


First  Printing  •  Oct.,  192S 
Second  Prmting  -  May,  192 3 
Third  Printing  •  Nov.,  1923 
Fourth  Printing  -  Nov.,  1924 
Fifth  Printing  -  Sept.,  192 5 
Sixth  Prmting  •  Feb.,  1926 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


QU 


DEDICATED  TO 
MY   ELDEST   BOEN 


1661497 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PACK 

I.    BRINGING  UP  KARI 3 

II.    How  KARI   SAVED  OUR  LIVES  IN  THE 

JUNGLE 19 

III.  KARI  GOES  TO  TOWN 29 

IV.  KARI'S  ADVENTURE  IN  BENARES     .      .  47 
V.    THE  JUNGLE  SPIRIT 63 

VI.    KARI'S  STORY 75 

VII.    THE  TIGER  HUNT 91 

VIII.    KARI  AND  THE  QUICK-SAND      .      .      .  107 

IX.    KARI'S  TRAVELS 117 

X.    KARI  IN  THE  LUMBER  YARD    .  129 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


KAEI  AND  KOPEE  AND  I        ...      Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

KARI  PUNISHES  SUDU 14 

ONE  DAY  I  TOOK  THEM  TO  THE  BAZAAR      .       36 

THAT  VERY  INSTANT  THE  UP-RAISED  FOOT  OF 

THE  ELEPHANT  WAS  ON  His  HEAD     .      .       68 

THE  TIGER  HAD  FOUND  His  KILL     .      .      .       86 

IF  You  TOOK  A  FLUTE  AND  PLAYED  CERTAIN 
TUNES  ON  IT,  ALL  THE  SNAKES  WOULD 
COME  OUT  OF  THEIR  HOLES  AND  DANCE 
TO  THE  Music 92 

WITHOUT  ANY  WARNING  THE  MAGISTRATE  FIRED    102 

IN  His  MADNESS  HE  MUST  HAVE  GONE  BACK 

TO  THE  JUNGLE   .  134 


KARI   THE   ELEPHANT 


CHAPTER  I 
BRINGING  UP  KARI 


CHAPTER  I 
BRINGING   UP    KARI 

KARI,  the  elephant,  was  five  months 
old  when  he  was  given  to  me  to  take 
care  of.  I  was  nine  years  old  and  I 
could  reach  his  back  if  I  stood  on  tiptoe.  He 
seemed  to  remain  that  high  for  nearly  two 
years.  Perhaps  we  grew  together;  that  is 
probably  why  I  never  found  out  just  how  tall 
he  was.  He  lived  in  a  pavilion,  under  a 
thatched  roof  which  rested  on  thick  tree  stumps 
so  that  it  could  not  fall  in  when  Kari  bumped 
against  the  poles  as  he  moved  about. 

One  of  the  first  things  Kari  did  was  to  save 

the  life  of  a  boy.    Kari  did  not  eat  much  but 

he  nevertheless  needed  forty  pounds  of  twigs 

a  day  to  chew  and  play  with.    Every  day  I 

3 


4  Kari  the  Elephant 

used  to  take  him  to  the  river  in  the  morning 
for  his  bath.  He  would  lie  down  on  the  sand 
bank  while  I  rubbed  him  with  the  clean  sand 
of  the  river  for  an  hour.  After  that  he  would 
lie  in  the  water  for  a  long  time.  On  coming 
out  his  skin  would  be  shining  like  ebony,  and 
he  would  squeal  with  pleasure  as  I  rubbed 
water  down  his  back.  Then  I  would  take  him 
by  the  ear,  because  that  is  the  easiest  way  to 
lead  an  elephant,  and  leave  him  on  the  edge 
of  the  jungle  while  I  went  into  the  forest  to 
get  some  luscious  twigs  for  his  dinner.  One 
has  to  have  a  very  sharp  hatchet  to  cut  down 
these  twigs;  it  takes  half  an  hour  to  sharpen 
the  hatchet  because  if  a  twig  is  mutilated  an 
elephant  will  not  touch  it. 

When  one  goes  into  the  jungle,  one  must 
remember  that  there  are  laws  one  cannot 
break.  Do  you  know  that  anyone  who  is  afraid 
or  who  hates  one  of  the  animals  of  the  jungle 
gives  out  an  odor  which  attracts  tigers  and 
wolves?  Every  day  that  I  was  afraid  to  go 
into  the  jungle,  I  did  not  dare  to  stay  on  the 


Bringing  Up  Kari  5 

ground  for  fear  lest  the  tigers  would  smell  my 
presence  and  attack  me.  I  climbed  a  tree  in- 
stead, because  when  one  is  in  a  tree  the  odor  of 
one's  body  does  not  go  into  the  forest,  and  the 
animals  cannot  tell  whether  one  is  afraid  or  not. 

It  was  not  an  easy  job,  as  you  see,  to  get 
twigs  and  saplings  for  Kari.  I  had  to  climb  all 
kinds  of  trees  to  get  the  most  delicate  and  ten- 
der twigs.  As  he  was  very  fond  of  the  young 
branches  of  the  banian  tree  which  grows  like 
a  cathedral  of  leaves  and  branches,  I  was 
gathering  some,  one  spring  day  in  March, 
when  I  suddenly  heard  Kari  calling  to  me  in 
the  distance.  As  he  was  still  very  young,  the 
call  was  more  like  that  of  a  baby  than  an  ele- 
phant. I  thought  somebody  was  hurting  him, 
so  I  came  down  from  my  tree  and  ran  very 
fast  to  the  edge  of  the  forest  where  I  had  left 
him,  but  he  was  not  there. 

I  looked  all  over,  but  I  could  not  find  him. 
I  went  near  the  edge  of  the  water,  and  I  saw 
a  black  something  struggling  above  its  surface. 
Then  it  rose  higher  and  it  was  the  trunk  of  my 


6  Kari  the  Elephant 

elephant.  I  thought  he  was  drowning.  I  was 
helpless  because  I  could  not  jump  into  the 
water  and  save  his  four  hundred  pounds  since 
he  was  much  higher  than  I.  But  I  saw  his 
back  rise  above  the  water  and  the  moment  he 
caught  my  eye,  he  began  to  trumpet  and 
struggle  up  to  the  shore.  Then,  still  trumpet- 
ing, he  pushed  me  into  the  water  and  as  I  fell 
into  the  stream  I  saw  a  boy  lying  flat  on  the 
bottom  of  the  river.  He  had  not  altogether 
touched  bottom  but  was  somewhat  afloat.  I 
came  to  the  surface  of  the  water  to  take  my 
breath  and  there  Kari  was  standing,  his  feet 
planted  into  the  sand  bank  and  his  trunk 
stretched  out  like  a  hand  waiting  for  mine.  I 
dove  down  again  and  pulled  the  body  of  the 
drowning  boy  to  the  surface,  but  not  being  a 
good  swimmer,  I  could  not  swim  ashore  and 
the  slow  current  was  already  dragging  me 
down.  I  clutched  at  reeds  on  the  short  but 
they  broke  and  the  weight  of  the  boy  was  tiring 
out  one  hand  while  the  other  was  already  weak 
from  excessive  swimming  and  clutching  at  the 


Bringing  Up  Kari  7 

reeds.  Seeing  us  drift  by  in  the  current,  Kari 
who  was  usually  so  slow  and  ponderous,  sud- 
denly darted  down  like  a  hawk  and  came  half- 
way into  the  water  where  I  saw  him  stretch  out 
his  trunk  again.  I  raised  up  my  hand  to  catch 
it  and  it  slipped.  I  found  myself  going  under 
the  water  again,  but  this  time  I  found  that  the 
water  was  not  very  deep  so  I  sank  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  river  and  doubled  my  feet  under 
me  and  then  suddenly  kicked  the  river  bed 
and  so  shot  upwards  like  an  arrow,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  thaf  I  was  holding  the  drowning  boy 
with  my  hand.  As  my  body  rose  above  the 
water,  I  felt  a  lasso  around  my  neck.  This 
frightened  me;  I  thought  some  water  animal 
was  going  to  swallow  me.  I  heard  the  squeal- 
ing of  Kari,  and  I  knew  it  was  his  trunk  about 
my  neck.  He  pulled  us  both  ashore. 

As  the  boy  lay  stretched  on  the  ground 
I  recognized  the  cowherd.  He  had  gone  to 
bathe  in  the  river,  had  slipped  too  far  out,  and 
not  knowing  how  to  swim  had  almost  been 
drowned.  I  put  him  flat  on  his  face  on  the 


8  Kari  the  Elephant 

sand  and  the  elephant  put  his  trunk  about  his 
waist  and  lifted  it  gently  up  and  down,  and 
then  up  again.  After  doing  this  three  or  four 
times,  the  water  began  to  come  out  of  the  boy's 
mouth  and,  not  knowing  what  else  to  do  be- 
cause his  body  was  cold,  I  slapped  him  very 
hard  all  over.  After  that  I  propped  him  up 
against  the  elephant's  leg.  Then  the  boy 
slowly  came  to. 

In  the  meantime  all  his  cows  had  wandered 
away  in  different  directions.  As  I  thought 
some  had  gone  into  the  jungle,  where  I  was 
afraid  they  might  be  eaten  up  by  tigers,  I  sent 
Kari  to  bring  them  back  to  the  river  bank. 
But  Kari  got  lost  himself;  so  when  the  cow- 
herd had  recovered  entirely,  I  went  to  look  for 
his  cows  and  my  lost  elephant.  Where  do  you 
think  I  found  him?  He  had  gone  right  into 
the  forest  where  I  had  left  the  saplings  and 
the  twigs  and  had  buried  his  trunk  into  the 
heap  and  was  eating  the  best  of  them,  without 
any  concern  for  the  cows,  the  cowherd  or 
myself. 


Bringing  Up  Kari  9 

But  I  could  not  punish  him  that  day  because 
he  had  done  his  duty  by  saving  the  life  of  the 
boy. 

Kari  was  like  a  baby.  He  had  to  be  trained 
to  be  good  and  if  you  did  not  tell  him  when  he 
was  naughty,  he  was  up  to  more  mischief  than 
ever. 

For  instance,  one  day  somebody  gave  him 
some  bananas  to  eat.  Very  soon  he  developed 
a  great  love  for  ripe  bananas.  We  used  to 
keep  large  plates  of  fruit  on  a  table  near  a  win- 
dow in  the  dining-room.  One  day  all  the  bana- 
nas on  that  table  disappeared  and  my  family 
blamed  the  servants  for  eating  all  the  fruit  in 
the  house.  A  few  days  later  the  fruit  dis- 
appeared again;  this  time  the  blame  was  put 
on  me,  and  I  knew  I  had  not  done  it.  It  made 
me  very  angry  with  my  parents  and  the  ser- 
vants, for  I  was  sure  they  had  taken  all  the 
fruit.  The  next  time  the  fruit  disappeared,  I 
found  a  banana  all  smashed  up  in  Kari's 
pavilion.  This  surprised  me  very  much,  for 


io  Kari  the  Elephant 

I  had  never  seen  fruit  there,  and  as  you 
he  had  always  lived  on  twigs. 

Next  day  while  I  was  sitting  in  the  dining- 
room  wondering  whether  I  should  take  some 
fruit  from  the  table  without  my  parents'  per- 
mission, a  long,  black  thing,  very  much  like  a 
snake  suddenly  came  through  the  window  and 
disappeared  with  all  the  bananas.  I  was  very 
much  frightened  because  I  had  never  seen 
snakes  eat  bananas  and  I  thought  it  must  be 
a  terrible  snake  that  would  sneak  in  and  take 
fruit.  I  crept  out  of  the  room  and  with  great 
fear  in  my  heart  ran  out  of  the  house,  feeling 
sure  that  the  snake  would  come  back  into  the 
house,  eat  all  the  fruit  and  kill  all  of  us. 

As  I  went  out,  I  saw  Kari's  back  disappear- 
ing in  the  direction  of  the  pavilion  and  I  was 
so  frightened  that  I  wanted  his  company  to 
cheer  me  up.  I  ran  after  him  into  the  pavilion 
and  I  found  him  there  eating  bananas.  I 
stood  still  in  astonishment;  the  bananas  were 
lying  strewn  all  around  him.  He  stretched 
out  his  trunk  and  reached  for  one  far  away 


Bringing  Up  Kari  II 

from  where  he  was  standing.  That  instant 
the  truflk  looked  like  a  black  snake,  and  I  real- 
ized that  Kari  was  the  thief.  I  went  to  him, 
pulled  him  out  by  the  ear  and  joyously  showed 
my  parents  that  it  was  Kari  and  not  I  that 
had  eaten  all  the  fruit  these  many  weeks.  Then 
I  scolded  him,  for  elephants  understand  words 
as  well  as  children,  and  I  said  to  him,  "Next 
time  I  see  you  stealing  fruit,  you  will  be 
whipped."  He  knew  that  we  were  all  angry 
with  him,  even  the  servants.  His  pride  was  so 
injured  that  he  never  stole  another  thing  from 
the  dining-room.  And  from  then  on,  if  any- 
body gave  him  any  fruit,  he  always  squealed  as 
if  to  thank  them. 

An  elephant  is  willing  to  be  punished  for 
having  done  wrong,  but  if  you  punish  him 
without  any  reason,  he  will  remember  it  and 
pay  you  back  in  your  own  coin. 

Once  I  had  taken  him  to  bathe  in  the 
river;  this  was  summer  vacation  and  several 
boys  came  with  me  to  help.  Kari  lay  on  the 
bank  and  we  rubbed  him  all  over  with  sand. 


12  Kari  the  Elephant 

Then  he  went  into  the  water  and  most  of  us 
began  to  play.  As  Kari  came  up  from  the^ 
water,  one  of  the  boys,  named  Sudu,  was 
standing  on  the  bank.  For  no  reason  at  all  he 
hit  the  elephant  three  or  four  times  with  his 
whip.  Kari  squealed  and  ran  away.  I 
brought  him  home. 

The  next  summer  Kari  had  grown  so  big 
and  fat  that  I  could  not  reach  his  back  even 
when  I  stood  on  tiptoe.  We  used  to  take  him 
out  wherever  we  went,  sometimes  one  riding 
on  his  back,  sometimes  all  walking  along  with 
him.  We  gave  him  luscious  twigs  if  he  behaved 
well  and  sometimes  delicious  fruit.  Once  in  a 
great  while  as  a  special  treat  we  would  massage 
his  chest  with  straw  and  he  would  squeal  with 
joy  and  lie  on  his  back  as  best  he  could  with 
his  fat  legs,  staring  at  the  sun. 

One  day  Sudu  was  standing  on  the  river 
bank  where  I  had  just  taken  the  elephant  to 
give  him  his  bath.  That  day  Kari  had  been 
very  good,  so  we  prepared  a  straw  massage  for 
him.  As  it  was  very  hot,  however,  we  plunged 


Bringing  Up  Kari  13 

into  the  river  ourselves  before  giving  him  his 
bath,  leaving  Sudu  and  the  elephant  on  tHe 
bank.  Without  warning,  Kari  rushed  at  him 
like  a  mad  bull,  threw  his  trunk  about  Sudu's 
neck,  flung  him  into  the  water,  and  held  him 
there  for  a  long,  long  time.  When  Sudu  was 
finally  pulled  out  of  the  water  and  stretched  on 
the  ground,  he  was  nearly  senseless. 

When  Sudu  asked  me  whether  I  would  pun- 
ish Kari  for  having  disgraced  him  in  public 
like  that,  I  answered  that  the  elephant  was  not 
rude.  When  Sudu  asked  me  why,  I  said, 
"Don't  you  remember  about  a  year  ago  you 
whipped  him  for  no  reason  at  all,  almost  on 
the  exact  spot  where  he  has  just  punished 
you?"  Sudu  felt  so  ashamed  of  himself  that 
he  got  angry  with  all  of  us  and  went  home 
alone.  But  by  the  next  day,  we  had  made  it 
all  up  and  the  elephant  had  forgiven  him.  As 
a  proof  of  friendship,  when  we  went  to  the 
jungle  on  a  picnic,  Kari  carried  Sudu  on  his 
back.  Since  that  day  Sudu  has  never  hurt  a 
living  creature. 


14  Kari  the  Elephant 

An  elephant  must  be  taught  when  to  sit 
down,  when  to  walk,  when  to  go  fast,  and  when 
to  go  slow.  You  teach  him  these  things  as  you 
teach  a  child.  If  you  say  "Dhat"  and  pull  him 
by  the  ear,  he  will  gradually  learn  to  sit  down. 
Similarly,  if  you  say  "Mali"  and  pull  his  trunk 
forward,  he  will  gradually  learn  that  that  is 
the  signal  to  walk. 

Kari  learned  "Mali"  after  three  lessons,  but 
it  took  him  three  weeks  to  learn  "Dhat."  He 
was  no  good  at  sitting  down.  And  do  you 
know  why  an  elephant  should  be  taught  to  sit 
down?  Because  he  grows  taller  and  taller  than 
you  who  take  care  of  him,  so  that  when  he  is 
two  or  three  years  old,  you  can  only  reach  his 
back  with  a  ladder.  It  is,  therefore,  better  to 
teach  him  to  sit  down  by  saying  "Dhat"  so  that 
you  can  climb  upon  his  back,  for  who  would 
want  to  carry  a  ladder  around  all  the  time? 

The  most  difficult  thing  to  teach  an  elephant 
is  the  master  call.  He  generally  takes  five 
years  to  learn  it  properly.  The  master  call  is 
a  strange  hissing,  howling  sound,  as  if  a  snake 


Bringing  Up  Kari  15 

and  a  tiger  were  fighting  each  other,  and  you 
have  to  make  that  kind  of  noise  in  his  ear.  And 
do  you  know  what  you  expect  an  elephant  to 
do  when  you  give  him  the  master  call?  If  you 
are  lost  in  the  jungle  and  there  is  no  way  out, 
and  everything  is  black  except  the  stars  above, 
you  dare  not  stay  very  long  anywhere.  The 
only  thing  to  do  then  is  to  give  the  master  call 
and  at  once  the  elephant  pulls  down  the  tree  in 
front  of  him  with  his  trunk.  This  frightens 
all  the  animals  away.  As  the  tree  comes  crash- 
ing down,  monkeys  wake  from  their  sleep  and 
run  from  branch  to  branch — you  can  see  them 
in  the  moonlight — and  you  can  almost  see  the 
stags  running  in  all  directions  below.  You  can 
hear  the  growl  of  the  tiger  in  the  distance. 
Even  he  is  frightened.  Then  the  elephant 
pulls  down  the  next  tree  and  the  next,  and  the 
next.  Soon  you  will  find  that  he  has  made  a 
road  right  through  the  jungle  straight  to  your 
house. 


CHAPTER  II 

HOW  KARI  SAVED   OUR  LIVES 
IN  THE  JUNGLE 


CHAPTER  II 

HOW  KARI  SAVED  OUR  LIVES  IN 
THE  JUNGLE 

WHEN  Kari  grew  to  be  five  years 
old,  he  was  almost  as  high  as  the 
ceiling.  He  was  never  trained  for 
hunting.  We  never  thought  of  killing  any- 
thing except  snakes  and  tigers,  and  these  we 
killed  when  they  came  toward  the  village  and 
injured  men.  So  Kari  never  had  the  training 
of  a  hunting  elephant.  Just  the  same,  he  was 
very  alert  and  steady  in  the  face  of  danger,  so 
when  it  was  a  question  of  going  into  the  jungle 
on  the  back  of  an  elephant,  we  generally  took 
Kari  with  us.  During  such  trips  we  did  not 
put  a  cloth  of  gold  on  his  back  or  silver  bells 
on  his  sides.  These  bells  are  made  in  certain 
parts  of  India  where  silversmiths  know  how  to 
19 


20  Kari  the  Elephant 

melt  and  mix  silver  so  that  when  the  clapper 
strikes  the  sides  of  the  bell  there  will  be  a  sound 
like  rushing  water.  The  two  bells  are  tied  by 
a  silver  chain  and  slung  over  the  elephant's 
back,  one  dangling  on  each  side  of  him.  We 
never  put  a  howdah  on  the  back  of  Kari.  Very 
few  Hindus  put  howdahs  on  elephants. 

Do  you  know  what  a  howdah  is  ?  It  is  a  box 
with  high  sides  inside  of  which  there  are  chairs 
for  travelers.  The  howdahs  are  generally  for 
people  who  are  not  accustomed  to  elephants. 
They  need  the  high  sides  so  that  when  the  ele- 
phant walks  they  will  not  fall  from  his  back. 
They  stay  in  their  seats  leaning  on  the  edge  of 
the  box  and  see  very  little,  especially  children 
who  are  not  tall  enough  to  see  over  the  sides. 
That  is  why  Indian  children  prefer  riding  bare- 
back on  an  elephant  to  taking  a  howdah. 

One  evening  when  my  brother  and  I  went 
out,  we  put  a  mattress  on  Kari's  back  and  tied 
it  very  tightly  with  cords  so  that  it  would  not 
slip,  for  it  is  not  pleasant  to  slip  and  fall  under 
an  elephant's  belly  and  be  stepped  on.  But 


How  Kari  Saved  Out;  Lives     21 

Kari  was  trained  so  that  he  would  not  have 
stepped  on  us  even  if  we  had  slipped  under 
him.  We  tightened  the  cords  to  the  mattress, 
however,  and  lay  down  for  the  night.  Though 
we  had  bells,  we  lifted  them  up  and  silenced  the 
clappers,  so  that  in  walking  through  the  jungle 
road  they  would  not  ring  and  frighten  the  ani- 
mals, for  the  forest  is  the  dwelling  place  of 
silence,  and  silence  being  the  voice  of  God,  no 
man  dares  to  disturb  it.  We  lay  on  the  back  of 
Kari  and  looked  up  at  the  stars.  In  India,  the 
stars  are  so  close  that  you  can  almost  pluck 
them  with  your  hands  and  the  velvet  blue  of  the 
sky  is  like  a  river  of  stillness  running  between 
banks  of  silver. 

As  we  lay  there,  unable  to  go  to  sleep  right; 
away,  we  heard  jungle  sounds.  The  heavy; 
tread  of  the  elephant  was  like  clouds  brushing 
the  crests  of  the  forest.  Once  in  a  while  you 
could  see  a  tiger  come  out  of  the  jungle,  cross 
a  road  and  disappear  in  the  distance,  but  Kari 
was  so  brave  he  never  condescended  to  notice 
the  comings  and  goings  of  tigers.  Once  we 


22  Kari  the  Elephant 

heard  the  bark  of  a  fox  very  near  us  and  then 
he  came  out  of  the  jungle.  Kari  stopped  and 
the  fox  passed  across  the  road,  then  we  moved 
on  again.  In  the  moonlight  which  made  the 
road  before  us  look  like  a  river  of  silver  we 
saw  squirrels  leaping  from  branch  to  branch. 

You  know,  perhaps,  that  elephants  can  sleep 
as  they  walk.  Presently  Kari's  walk  slackened 
into  a  slow  pace,  and  we  felt  quite  sure  that 
he  was  dozing.  Then  we  remembered  nothing, 
for  we  too  fell  asleep.  I  cannot  tell  how  much 
time  passed  before  we  were  startled  out  of  our 
sleep  by  a  terrible  roar,  a  ghastly  trumpeting 
of  the  elephant  and  a  terrible  lunge  of  his  body. 
We  had  to  hold  on  to  his  back  very  tightly  to 
avoid  being  thrown  off.  In  a  few  seconds  both 
of  us  had  turned  over — I  do  not  know  how — 
and  were  lying  on  our  faces,  holding  on  to  the 
cords  that  held  the  mattress  to  Kari's  back, 
while  he  broke  into  a  run. 

Trees  bent  and  broke,  branches  fell,  and  we 
could  hear  the  monkeys  stampeding  from  tree 
to  tree,  and  flocks  of  birds,  startled  out  of  their 


How  Kari  Saved  Our  Lives     23 

sleep,  falling  upon  us,  their  wings  beating  our 
faces.  We  shouted  to  Kari  to  be  calm,  but  he 
went  on  as  if  he  were  mad.  We  heard  boars 
snorting,  and  running  away,  and  strange-look- 
ing horned  creatures  leaping  and  bounding  off 
in  all  directions.  Then  a  tree  in  front  of  us 
fell,  and  the  jungle  throbbed  for  a  moment.  It 
seemed  as  though  a  shiver  ran  through  Kari's 
body,  and  he  stopped  stock  still.  It  was  very 
difficult  to  tell  exactly  what  had  happened  un- 
til we  got  off  Kari's  back.  I  spoke  to  him  and 
he  shook  his  head,  then  I  spoke  again  and 
urged  him  to  put  up  his  head.  He  obeyed  and 
I  climbed  down  by  his  trunk.  I  felt  it  was 
very  wet,  however,  and  he  shook  me  off  with 
pain. 

My  brother  spoke  to  me  from  above  and 
said  when  I  told  him  how  the  trunk  felt,  "Now 
I  know.  You  see,  this  is  autumn  when  bears 
eat  Mohula  in  the  moonlight  under  the  thick 
shade  of  the  trees.  As  you  know,  Mohula  in- 
toxicates bears,  and  makes  them  sleepy.  Some 
bear  had  fallen  asleep  under  the  trees  and  Kari, 


24  Kari  the  Elephant 

who  was  also  asleep  and  consequently  did  not 
even  smell  him  with  his  trunk,  must  have  come 
upon  him  without  suspecting  his  presence.  Al- 
though all  bears  are  brought  up  to  respect 
elephants,  this  one,  no  doubt,  was  so  sleepy 
that  he  did  not  know  who  was  upon  him  and  so 
I  am  sure  he  must  have  sprung  up  in  his  sur- 
prise and  scratched  Kari's  trunk." 

If  Kari  had  been  wide  awake  he  would  have 
killed  the  bear,  but  being  sleepy,  the  shock  and 
the  surprise  of  the  attack  and  the  pain  in  his 
trunk  frightened  him  so  that  he  ran  out  into  the 
jungle  mad  with  terror. 

I  put  my  hand  on  the  trunk  again.  Yes, 
it  was  bleeding;  I  could  see  in  the  moonlight 
that  it  was  not  perspiration  because  my  hand 
was  dark  red.  I  spoke  to  Kari  again;  this  time 
he  did  not  shake  his  head  so  furiously.  He  was 
rather  willing  to  listen  and  I  told  him  I  was 
very  sorry  about  his  trunk  but  could  do  noth- 
ing here,  I  also  told  him  to  go  back  to  the  road. 
He  shook  his  head — that  meant  "No."  Do  you 
know  why  he  did  not  want  to  go  back  to  that 


How  Kari  Saved  Our  Lives     25 

road?    You  shall  learn  at  the  end  of  this  story. 

I  got  upon  his  back  again.  "Since  he  won't 
go  back  to  the  road,"  said  my  brother,  "we 
must  give  him  the  master  call  so  that  he  can 
make  a  road  through  the  jungle"  and  we  gave 
him  the  master  call. 

At  this  Kari  lifted  his  bleeding  trunk  and 
smote  down  the  first  tree,  and  then  he  struck 
down  the  next  tree.  He  came  upon  a  third 
which  his  trunk  could  not  pull  down,  so  he 
turned  around  and  walked  away  from  it. 
After  taking  a  few  steps  he  stopped  and  slowly 
walked  backwards  and  with  one  push  of  his 
back,  knocked  this  tree  down. 

At  this  we  could  hear  the  flocks  of  birds 
flying  in  the  air  and  feel  the  stamping  feet 
below  as  herds  of  animals  ran  in  every  direc- 
tion. We  heard  the  vibrant  jabber  of  monkeys 
from  tree-tops,  and  each  time  a  new  tree  fell 
there  was  more  jabbering  and  more  leaping 
away  from  tree  to  tree. 

We  clung  to  the  elephant's  back  with  our 
nails  and  teeth. 


26  Kari  the  Elephant 

Soon  we  found  ourselves  on  the  road,  three 
miles  ahead  of  where  Kari  had  been  frightened 
by  the  bear. 

Do  you  know  why  he  did  not  go  back  to 
the  same  spot?  Because  no  animal  ever  likes 
to  return  to  the  place  where  he  lost  his  pride. 
For  to  be  frightened  is  to  lose  one's  pride. 


CHAPTER  III 
KARI  GOES  TO  TOWN 


CHAPTER  III 
KARI  GOES  TO  TOWN 

WHEN  Kari  was  about  five  years  old, 
another  adventure  befell  him.  We 
took  him  to  see  the  town,  but  before 
we  had  started,  we  tried  to  train  him  to  like 
dogs  and  monkeys.  Elephants  are  proverbi- 
ally irritated  by  dogs.  When  an  elephant  goes 
through  a  village,  every  dog  barks  at  him,  and 
while  most  elephants  are  too  dignified  to  pay 
any  attention,  there  are  some  who  get  ex- 
tremely annoyed  and  try  to  chase  the  dogs. 
Sometimes,  in  fact,  an  elephant  will  chase  a 
dog  so  hard  that  he  will  lose  his  way  in  the 
village. 

Knowing  that  there  were  many  unknown 
little  hamlets  between  our  village  and  the  city, 
we  thought  we  would  train  Kari  to  like  dogs 
29 


30  Kari  the  Elephant 

before  we  started,  for  we  did  not  want  to  be  led 
astray  into  all  sorts  of  little  alleys  while  he 
chased  the  dogs  who  had  annoyed  him. 

But  as  all  the  dogs  of  our  village  had  seen 
Kari  grow  up  they  never  paid  any  attention 
to  him,  and  that  made  it  all  the  more  difficult 
to  train  Kari  to  like  other  dogs.  He  always 
thought  the  dogs  in  our  little  village  were  the 
right  kind  since  they  did  not  bark  at  him. 
Whenever  a  strange  dog  barked  at  him,  he 
would  chase  the  poor  creature  through  the 
whole  village  and  waste  hours  in  finding  his 
way  back  to  the  road. 

We  tried  to  train  Kari  by  taking  him  to  vil- 
lages that  he  had  not  yet  seen.  There  were  no 
dogs  in  the  first  village  we  came  to.  We  went 
through  it  without  any  trouble.  In  the  second 
village  we  came  across  one  or  two  dogs  that 
barked  a  few  times,  then  disappeared  in  the 
distance.  Then,  as  we  were  leaving  this  village 
we  heard  terrible  snorts  and  growls  all  around 
us  and  were  suddenly  surrounded  by  a  pack  of 
angry  mongrels,  curs  and  wild  dogs.  It  was 


Kari  Goes  to  Town  31 

terrible  to  see  Kari  trying  to  chase  them  with 
his  trunk.  Sometimes  he  would  try  to  step 
right  on  the  back  of  a  dog,  but  the  dog  would 
slip  away  from  under  him.  Little  by  little  as 
the  dogs  began  to  bark  all  around  him,  he 
started  to  go  round  and  round  in  a  circle,  faster 
and  faster  till  he  was  spinning  like  a  top. 

We  had  a  hard  time  sittting  on  his  back  be- 
cause we  felt  terribly  dizzy.  We  were  almost 
falling  off,  when  we  heard  a  piercing  yell  and 
saw  the  whole  pack  of  tormentors  running 
away.  Kari  had  stepped  on  one  of  the  dogs 
and  killed  it  and  that  frightened  the  others 
away. 

We  then  brought  Kari  home,  gave  him  his 
bath  in  the  river  and  offered  him  nice  saplings 
and  twigs,  but  he  would  eat  none  of  them. 

From  that  day  on,  Kari  was  never  upset  by 
the  barking  of  dogs,  but  went  through  strange 
villages  without  paying  any  attention  to  them, 
no  matter  how  hard  they  barked  at  his  heels. 

Now  that  he  had  become  immune  to  dogs, 
we  tried  to  make  him  like  monkeys.  Monkeys, 


32  Kari  the  Elephant 

as  you  know,  are  very  annoying  little  creatures. 
I  had  a  pet  monkey  of  my  own  named  Kopee, 
who  was  red-faced  and  tawny-coated.  He 
never  came  near  the  elephant,  and  Kari  never 
thought  of  going  near  him.  Whenever  we 
went  out,  this  monkey  used  to  sit  on  my 
shoulder,  and  if  we  passed  through  bazaars 
where  mangoes  and  other  fruits  were  sold,  it 
was  very  difficult  to  keep  Kopee  from  getting 
into  mischief.  In  India  everything  is  shown  in 
the  open,  and  the  mangoes  lie  in  baskets  piled 
up  one  above  the  other  like  little  hills.  There 
were  places  where  oranges  were  heaped  up  like 
big  burning  rocks.  Here  and  there  you  could 
see  brown  men  robed  in  white  sitting  near  these 
mountains  of  fruit,  bargaining  about  the 
prices. 

Now  it  is  very  good  to  smell  the  fragrance  of 
fruit,  and  one  day  while  going  through  the 
lane  of  a  village,  as  the  fragrance  of  the  fruit 
grew  stronger,  I  forgot  all  about  Kopee,  and 
did  not  realize  that  I  was  carrying  him  on  my 
shoulder. 


Kari  Goes  to  Town  33 

Somehow  the  little  monkey  always  knew 
when  I  was  not  thinking  of  him.  At  such  mo- 
ments he  would  invariably  jump  off  my 
shoulder  and  run  straight  for  the  oranges  or 
mangoes,  take  one  or  two  of  them  and  then 
make  a  dive  for  a  sheltered  spot.  This  upset 
the  whole  bazaar.  Hundreds  of  men  would 
pursue  him  from  tree  to  tree,  yelling  and 
throwing  stones  till  he  vanished  out  of  sight. 

Of  course,  I  used  to  get  terribly  frightened, 
fearing  that  the  men  would  attack  me  for 
carrying  such  a  mischievous  monkey.  I  would 
hurry  out  of  the  bazaar  and  make  for  home  as 
fast  as  I  could  go.  Then  in  an  hour  or  two  I 
would  find  Kopee  on  the  house  top,  looking 
perfectly  innocent  and  scratching  himself.  No 
one  could  ever  tell  by  his  face  that  he  had  stolen 
fruit  a  short  while  before. 

When  the  time  came  for  me  to  go  to  town,  I 
was  anxious  to  take  Kopee  and  Kari  with  me, 
and  I  wanted  the  elephant  to  like  the  monkey 
and  the  monkey  to  behave  like  a  gentleman  to- 
ward the  elephant.  One  day  I  brought  the 


34  Kari  the  Elephant 

monkey  on  my  shoulder  and  held  him  tight 
with  both  hands  in  front  of  the  pavilion  where 
the  elephant  was  busy  eating  all  kinds  of  sap- 
lings. Sometimes  he  would  take  a  strong  twig 
and  unravel  the  top  into  a  soft,  fluffy  tuft ;  then 
he  would  seize  the  other  end  of  it  with  his  trunk 
and  brush  himself.  The  moment  he  saw  the 
monkey,  he  snorted  and  raised  his  trunk  to 
grab  him.  With  one  wild  scream  the  monkey 
jumped  off  my  shoulder,  climbed  up  the  pavil- 
ion post  and  disappeared  on  the  roof. 

I  went  to  Kari  and  spoke  to  him.  I  said, 
"Kari,  in  order  to  like  dogs  you  killed  one,  now 
don't  kill  my  monkey  in  order  to  like  mon- 
keys." He  was  very  displeased  that  I  should 
ever  want  him  to  like  monkeys,  because  ele- 
phants are  very  much  like  some  people  who 
don't  like  to  associate  with  others  who  have 
come  from  nowhere  and  whom  they  consider 
their  inferiors.  Elephants  don't  like  to  asso- 
ciate with  monkeys,  for  they  came  from  no- 
where. You  must  remember,  too,  that  ele- 
phants rarely  see  monkeys  because  monkeys 


Kari  Goes  to  Town  35 

are  above  the  elephants  most  of  the  time,  jump- 
ing and  squealing  among  the  trees  in  a  manner 
most  annoying  to  a  quiet  and  sedate  creature 
like  an  elephant. 

It  did  not  take  more  than  a  week,  however, 
to  bring  Kari  and  Kopee  together.  One  day 
there  was  a  pile  of  fruit  lying  in  the  open,  and 
the  elephant  stood  at  one  end  eating  and  the 
monkey  at  the  other,  both  enjoying  the  feast. 
Of  course,  the  elephant  ate  faster  than  the 
monkey,  and  realizing  this,  Kopee  began  to 
eat  more  quickly  and  soon  had  enormous 
pouches  on  each  side  of  his  face.  Before  long 
all  the  fruit  was  gone  and  the  two  animals 
were  left  facing  each  other.  The  monkey 
trembled  with  fear.  He  was  almost  on  the 
point  of  running  away  to  a  tree-top,  but,  no 
one  knows  why,  the  elephant  turned  away  from 
him  and  went  into  his  pavilion.  This  gave  the 
monkey  great  courage,  so  he  went  straight  up 
to  the  roof  of  the  pavilion,  and  peering  down 
through  the  eaves,  found  out  that  the  elephant 
lived  on  twigs  and  fruits  and  saplings  just  like 


36  Kari  the  Elephant 

himself.  Having  watched  all  this,  I  then  got  up 
on  Kari's  back  and  whistled  to  the  monkey.  He 
leaped  down  from  the  tree  onto  my  shoulder. 
The  elephant  shivered  for  a  moment  and  then 
was  absolutely  still.  When  I  ordered  him 
"mali,"  he  walked  on. 

One  day  I  took  them  to  the  bazaar,  I  on  the 
elephant  and  the  monkey  on  my  shoulder. 
When  we  had  reached  a  mountain  of  mangoes 
round  the  corner  of  a  lane,  the  monkey  jumped 
off  and  climbed  up  to  the  top  of  the  pile.  At 
this  the  owner  of  the  fruit  chased  him  away, 
yelling  and  shouting.  The  monkey  climbed 
up  the  roof  of  a  house,  followed  by  a  crowd. 
Kari,  however,  put  out  his  trunk  and  helped 
himself  to  whatever  fruits  he  liked,  eating  them 
with  great  relish.  The  moment  he  heard  the 
people  coming  back  from  the  monkey  chase, 
he  ran  away— and  you  may  be  surprised  to 
know  that  when  an  elephant  runs,  he  can  go 
more  than  ten  miles  an  hour.  By  the  time  we 
reached  home,  Kopee  had  buried  his  face  in  an 
enormous  mango  and  was  covered  with  the 


r,ir 


Kari  Goes  to  Town  37 

juice.  And  you  know  that  mangoes  taste 
very  much  like  strawberries  and  cream  with 
sugar  on  them. 

At  last  we  set  off  for  the  city,  Kari,  and 
Kopee  now  the  best  of  friends.  It  was  very 
interesting  at  night  going  through  the  jungle 
country.  The  moonlight  was  intense,  falling 
like  white  waters  on  the  land.  You  could  see 
the  tree-tops,  and  at  midnight  almost  clear 
down  to  the  very  floor  of  the  jungle  where  the 
shadows  were  thick  like  packs  of  wolves  crouch- 
ing in  sleep.  The  elephant  went  through  these 
regions  perfectly  care-free.  He  did  not  care 
who  came  or  went  or  what  happened. 

But  not  so  the  monkey.  Monkeys,  you 
know,  are  always  afraid  of  snakes,  and  do  you 
know  why?  Snakes  go  up  trees  and  eat  birds 
and  their  younglings.  Monkeys  also  live  by 
stealing  eggs  from  different  birds'  nests.  Now 
it  sometimes  happens  that  the  snake  eats  all 
the  birds'  eggs  in  the  nest  and  is  resting  there 
when  the  monkey  puts  his  hands  in  to  grab  the 
eggs,  so  the  monkey  instead  of  getting  the  eggs 


38  Kari  the  Elephant 

is  stung  to  death.  As  this  sort  of  thing  h&s 
been  happening  for  thousands  of  years,  it  is 
natural  that  they  fear  snakes. 

Monkeys  also  get  punished  for  using  their 
hands  too  much.  Now,  if  you  come  across  a 
snake,  the  best  thing  to  do  is  not  to  touch  it. 
Monkeys,  however,  accustomed  to  using  their 
hands  continually,  grab  a  snake  whenever  they 
see  one  with  the  result  that  the  snake  usu- 
ally stings  them  to  death.  I  have  never  seen 
a  snake  do  this,  but  I  have  seen  dead  snakes 
with  marks  on  their  bodies  showing  that  mon- 
keys had  twisted  them  like  ropes,  broken  their 
backs  and  thrown  them  down  before  the  snakes 
could  use  their  fangs.  This,  however,  is  very 
rare. 

As  we  were  going  through  the  jungle  that 
night,  Kopee  would  shiver  with  terror  when- 
ever there  was  a  swish  of  a  snake's  body  in  the 
grass  below  or  in  the  leaves  above,  and  I  had  to 
put  my  hand  on  his  back  and  whisper,  "Don't 
be  afraid,  you  are  on  the  elephant's  back  and 
nothing  can  touch  you." 


Kari  Goes  to  Town  39 

Another  thing  that  used  to  frighten  him  was 
the  hooting  of  the  night  owl.  Any  monkey 
that  lives  in  the  jungle  is  used  to  it,  but  as 
Kopee  was  born  among  human  beings  and  had 
always  lived  with  them,  he  had  never  heard 
jungle  noises.  When  the  owls  beat  their  wings 
and  gave  the  mating  call  and  hoot,  it  was  like 
a  foam  of  noise  rising  over  a  river  of  silence. 
I,  too,  was  alarmed  when  I  would  suddenly 
hear  the  hooting  in  my  sleep,  but  both  Kopee 
and  I  soon  got  used  to  it. 

About  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  Kari 
stopped  and  refused  to  go  a  step  further. 
Though  I  was  asleep,  Kopee  began  to  pull  me 
by  the  hand,  and  instantly  after  being  aroused, 
I  heard,  or  rather  felt,  as  if  clouds  were  passing 
by.  The  monkey's  eyes  were  all  eagerness  and 
burning  with  excitement,  and  I  looked  down 
where  he  was  looking.  The  honey-colored 
moon  was  casting  slanting  rays  into  the  jungle 
through  dark  moving  clouds.  We  did  not 
know  what  we  saw.  It  seemed  as  though  two 
or  three  hundred  wild  elephants  in  a  herd  were 


40  Karl  the  Elephant 

going  through  the  jungle,  or  perhaps  the 
clouds  were  feeding  on  the  leaves  that  night. 
No  one  knows  what  it  was,  but  we  did  know 
Silence  walked  by,  telling  us  of  the  mysteries 
of  the  jungle,  and  we  could  not  understand. 

Then  out  of  the  stillness  a  bird's  note  fell 
through  the  jungle  and  there  was  a  gleam  of 
whiteness.  That  instant  Silence  was  lifted, 
dawn  began  to  sing  through  the  jungle  and 
you  could  hear  its  flute-like  call  fading  away 
in  the  distance,  followed  by  a  momentary  hush. 
Then  the  birds  began  to  sing,  and  soon  the  sun 
came  leaping  over  the  forest  like  a  horse  of 
flame.  This  must  have  taken  at  least  an  hour 
and  a  half,  but  we  did  not  even  know  when  the 
elephant  resumed  his  walk. 

We  soon  came  to  a  river  where  we  stopped. 
I  gave  the  elephant  his  bath.  The  monkey 
went  off  in  search  of  food  from  tree  to  tree. 
Then  I  bathed  myself  and  stood  facing  the 
East,  saying  these  words  of  prayer: 

"O  Blossom  of  Eastern  Silence,; 
Reveal  to  us  the  face  of  God, 


Kari  Goes  to  Town  41 

Whose  shadow  is  this  day,  and 
Whose  light  is  always  within  us. 
Lead  us  from  the  unreal  to  the  Real, 
From  sound  into  Silence, 
From  darkness  unto  Light,  and 
From  death  into  Immortality." 

In  India  every  hour  has  its  prayer  and  every 
prayer  can  be  said  unconsciously  anywhere. 
Nobody  notices  you  if  you  kneel  down  on  the 
road  to  say  your  prayer,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  you  are  blocking  the  traffic.  Religion  runs 
like  singing  waters  by  the  shores  of  every 
human  life  in  India. 

I  went  to  the  forest  nearby  and  got  the  ele- 
phant his  food,  and  as  he  started  to  eat  I  began 
to  cook  my  own  meal.  When  traveling,  it  is 
better  to  cook  one's  own  meal  so  that  it  will  be 
clean  and  uncontaminated.  Very  soon  I  saw 
a  caravan  coming.  Apparently  Kopee  had 
seen  it  from  the  tree-top  as  he  was  chattering 
with  great  excitement  to  tell  me  it  was  coming. 
I  told  him  to  hold  his  tongue  because  the  ele- 
phant was  getting  restless. 

I  decided  to  go  with  the  caravan  into  the 


42  Kari  the  Elephant 

town  because  the  caravan  people  knew  the 
shortest  way.  I  also  preferred  to  travel  in 
human  company  rather  than  alone.  No  sooner 
had  the  caravan  reached  us  than  our  attention 
was  drawn  to  the  faces  of  the  camels  probing 
the  distance.  You  know  how  a  camel  examines 
the  air  as  he  goes  along — he  is  continually 
stretching  forth  his  head  and  smelling  the  air, 
and  he  can  do  this  easily  with  his  long  neck. 
As  camels  live  in  the  desert  they  must  keep 
smelling  the  air  to  find  out  its  humidity.  Every 
time  the  air  is  very  humid  they  know  that  water 
is  nearby.  That  is  why  we  call  camels  the  ex- 
aminers of  space;  in  your  country  you  would 
call  them  animal  barometers. 

The  moment  Kari  saw  the  camels  he  snorted 
in  anger,  though  the  monkey  was  excited  and 
thrilled.  You  see,  elephants  are  the  aristocrats 
of  animals,  while  camels  are  snobs.  You  can 
easily  tell  a  snob,  he  holds  his  head  in  a  very 
supercilious  way,  always  looking  down  on 
everyone,  and  don't  you  think  if  you  put  a 
monocle  on  a  camel's  eye  he  would  look  like 


Kari  Goes  to  Town  43 

any  snob  that  walks  down  the  avenue?  Never- 
theless, I  made  my  elephant  join  the  camels. 
That  is  to  say,  we  kept  about  one  hundred 
yards  behind  them  because  I  could  not  let  the 
monkey  bound  from  camel  hump  to  camel 
hump,  and  it  would  not  do  to  let  the  elephant 
put  his  trunk  about  the  camels'  necks  and  twist 
them. 

Toward  midday  the  whole  caravan  stopped 
and  all  the  animals  were  tied  under  different 
trees  for  two  or  three  hours  to  rest.  As  we 
knew  we  could  easily  reach  the  city  by  sun- 
down, we  all  enjoyed  our  siesta.  About  half- 
past  three,  the  doves  began  to  coo,  and  that 
made  the  monkey  sit  up  and  listen.  Being  a 
dweller  of  the  trees  by  birth,  Kopee  was  always 
sensitive  to  tree  sounds.  Soon  a  cuckoo  called 
from  the  distance  and  in  a  few  moments  the 
caravan  was  ready  to  move  on.  Nothing  ex- 
citing happened  the  rest  of  the  journey. 


CHAPTER  IV 

KARFS  ADVENTURE   IN 
BENARES 


CHAPTER  IV 
KARI'S  ADVENTURE  IN  BENARES 

A  the  sun  went  down  in  the  gathering 
silence  of  the  evening,  we  entered  the 
city  of  Benares,  the  oldest  city  in 
India.  For  three  thousand  years  stone  has 
been  laid  on  stone  to  keep  this  city  with  its 
haughty  towers  and  sombre  domes  above  the 
rushing  and  destroying  currents  of  the  sacred 
river.  The  river  like  a  liquid  ax  is  continually 
cutting  away  the  foundations  of  the  city.  At 
night  you  can  hear  the  whispering  Ganges 
gnawing  at  the  stone  embankments.  And  that 
is  why  all  the  tall  towers  of  Benares  lean 
slightly  over  the  water's  edge.  Their  roots  are 
being  cut  as  beavers  cut  the  roots  of  trees. 
And  any  Hindu  who  comes  into  Benares  feels 
the  age  of  India;  she  has  lived  very  long — in- 

47 


48  Kari  the  Elephant 

deed  too  long,  and  it  seems  time  no  more  clings 
to  her  than  the  morning  dew  clings  to  the  lion's 
mane. 

We  went  through  Benares  in  a  long,  narrow 
file.  The  camels  went  first,  and  the  monkey, 
who  had  jumped  off  my  shoulder,  was  leaping 
from  roof  to  roof  following  the  tide  of  the 
caravan.  Sometimes  he  would  run  ahead  and 
chatter;  and  then  suddenly  disappear  among 
roofs  and  walls.  Then  he  would  rush  back  to 
talk  to  me.  I  fastened  two  silver  bells  dang- 
ling from  silver  chains  to  the  elephant's  sides, 
and  the  cool  sound  of  the  bells  sank  into  the 
cooler  serenity  of  the  Indian  evening.  People 
were  walking  about  in  purple  and  gold  togas ; 
on  the  house-tops  were  pigeons  whose  throats 
shone  like  iridescent  beads.  Through  latticed 
balconies  you  could  see  the  faces  of  women 
with  eyes  warm  and  tranquil  as  the  midnight. 

We  had  not  gone  very  far  when  Kari  put 
out  his  trunk  and  took  a  peacock  fan  out  of  a 
lady's  hand  as  she  leant  against  the  railing  of 
a  balcony.  He  then  proceeded  to  give  it  to  me. 


Karl's  Adventure  in  Benares      49 

I  made  him  stop  and  give  it  back  to  its  owner. 
The  lady,  however,  would  not  take  it.  "Oh, 
little  dreamer  of  the  evening,"  she  said,  "cool 
thyself  with  my  peacock  fan.  Thy  elephant  is 
very  wise,  but  I  am  afraid  he  is  no  worse  a 
scamp  than  thou  art." 

I  took  the  fan,  made  my  bow  to  the  lady 
and  went  on.  Hardly  had  we  gone  two  more 
blocks  when  the  screaming  and  jabbering 
monkey  fell  upon  us.  Behind  him  on  the  roof 
of  one  of  the  houses  we  saw  a  man  with  a 
long  cudgel  which  he  shook  at  the  monkey.  I 
stopped  the  elephant  again  and  said  to  the 
man,  "Why  art  thou  irate  when  the  evening  is 
so  cool,  little  man  of  the  city?" 

"That  monkey !  Ten  thousand  curses  upon 
him !"  he  said.  "He  has  been  teasing  my  parrot 
in  its  cage,  and  has  plucked  so  many  of  its 
feathers  that  it  now  looks  like  a  beaked  rat." 

"I  shall  indeed  punish  this  wayward  mon- 
key," I  answered.  "But  thou  knowest  that 
monkeys  are  no  less  wayward  than  thou 
and  I." 


50  Kari  the  Elephant 

At  this  the  man  on  the  roof  got  very  angry 
and  began  to  hurl  all  kinds  of  abuses  at  me,  but 
I  prodded  the  elephant  with  my  foot  and  he 
walked  on,  while  the  swearing  and  cursing  of 
the  little  man  of  the  city  resounded  in  the  still- 
ness of  the  night.  Nothing  befell  us  that  night 
as  we  took  shelter  in  the  open  grounds  outside 
of  the  city. 

The  following  morning  long  before  day- 
break, I  heard  nothing  but  the  beat,  beat,  beat 
of  unknown  feet  on  the  dusky  pavement  of 
Benares.  It  seemed  as  though  the  stillness  of 
the  night  were  hurrying  away.  I  left  my  ani- 
mals where  they  were  and  went  in  quest  of 
these  beating  feet.  There  is  something  sinister 
in  this  walk  of  the  Hindu.  The  Hindu  walks 
with  a  great  deal  of  poise,  in  fact,  very  much 
like  an  elephant,  but  he  also  has  the  agility  of 
the  panther.  I  did  not  realize  it  until  that 
early  morning  when  I  heard  the  moving  feet, 
as  one  hears  dogs  on  the  hurrying  heels  of  a 
stag. 

Soon  I  reached  the  river  bank  where  I  saw 


Karl's  Adventure  in  Benares      51 

thousands  and  thousands  of  pilgrims  crowding 
the  steps  of  the  Ghaut,  the  staircase  leading  to 
the  river,  bathing  and  waiting  to  greet  the 
dawn.  As  I  followed  their  example  and  took 
my  bath,  there  arose  over  the  swaying  crowd 
and  the  beating  feet,  a  murmur  like  the  spray 
of  foam  on  the  seashore  after  the  breakers  have 
dashed  against  the  beach.  Then  the  day  broke 
like  two  horses  of  livid  light  rushing  through 
the  air.  In  the  tropics  the  daybreak  is  very 
sudden.  Hardly  had  those  streaks  of  light 
spent  themselves  through  the  sky  and  over  the 
waters,  when  a  golden  glow  fell  upon  the  faces 
of  the  people  and  they  raised  their  hands  in  a 
gesture  of  benediction,  greeting  the  morning 
sun  which  rose  like  a  mountain  of  crimson 
under  a  tide  of  gold.  All  of  us  said  our  morn- 
ing prayer,  thousands  of  voices  intoning  to- 
gether. 

I  could  not  stay  at  the  Ghaut  very  long, 
however.  I  knew  my  animals  would  be  looking 
for  me,  so  I  hastened  back.  Lo  and  behold, 
this  sight  greeted  me!  The  monkey  was  sit- 


52  Kari  the  Elephant 

ting  on  the  neck  of  the  elephant,  and  Kari,  who 
had  never  been  accustomed  to  that  sort  of 
thing  was  running  all  around,  raising  his  trunk 
and  bending  it  backwards  to  reach  the  monkey 
in  frantic  efforts  to  shake  him  off.  The  one 
spot  that  an  elephant  cannot  shake,  however, 
is  his  neck,  so  the  monkey  stayed  there  per- 
fectly calm,  looking  into  space,  secure  in  his 
seat. 

I  shouted  to  Kari  to  stop,  and  seeing  me,  he 
came  rushing  towards  me,  trembling.  He 
made  an  effort  to  shake  Kopee  off,  but  the 
monkey  was  glued  to  his  neck.  I  swore  at 
Kopee  and  told  him  to  get  off.  He  looked 
down  at  me  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  I, 
too,  was  very  irritated,  for  even  I  had  never 
seen  a  monkey  on  an  elephant's  neck.  That  is 
considered  very  improper.  I  threw  a  stone  at 
the  monkey  and  he  jumped  from  the  elephant's 
neck,  went  straight  up  a  tree  and  stayed  there. 
I  patted  Kari's  back  and  tried  to  soothe  him. 
Then  I  took  him  by  the  ear  and  we  walked  into 
town. 


Karl's  Adventure  in  Benares      53 

Karl  loved  human  beings;  the  more  he  saw 
them,  the  happier  he  felt.  He  glided  by  them 
like  a  human  child.  I  was  very  proud  of  him 
and  his  behavior.  As  we  went  on  our  way,  a 
mouse  ran  out  of  a  hole  in  the  foundations 
of  a  house  in  front  of  us.  Kari  turned  around, 
curled  up  his  trunk,  put  it  in  his  mouth  and 
ran.  You  see  elephants  are  not  afraid  of  any- 
thing except  mice,  for  a  mouse  can  crawl  into 
an  elephant's  trunk  and  disappear  in  his  head. 
I  was  humiliated  beyond  measure  at  Kari's 
behavior.  He  did  not  stop  till  he  reached  the 
open  ground  which  we  had  left  half  an  hour  be- 
fore. The  monkey  was  still  sitting  in  the  tree. 
Seeing  us,  he  shook  a  purse  at  me.  He  had 
stolen  somebody's  purse  and  was  holding  it  in 
his  hands  waiting  for  it  to  be  ransomed. 

Monkeys  are  very  much  like  bandits.  Once, 
I  remember,  my  little  sister  who  was  two 
months  old,  was  lying  in  a  basket  on  the  ver- 
anda. Suddenly  we  heard  her  crying,  and  go- 
ing out  on  the  veranda  found  that  she  was 
not  there.  Basket  and  all  had  disappeared. 


54  Kari  the  Elephant 

Then  we  looked  up  at  a  tree  and  tfiere  was  an 
enormous  baboon  looking  down  at  us,  while 
with  one  hand  he  held  the  basket,  which  was 
resting  on  a  branch.  My  father,  however, 
knew  what  to  do.  He  sent  a  servant  at  once 
to  the  bazaar,  and  in  the  meantime  brought  all 
of  the  fruit  in  the  house  and  spread  it  on  the 
floor  of  the  veranda.  The  monkey  shook  his 
head,  meaning  that  was  not  ransom  enough  for 
him.  Very  soon  the  servant  returned  with  an 
enormous  quantity  of  bananas.  The  baboon 
immediately  came  down,  and  it  was  remark- 
able how  he  brought  down  the  basket  without 
upsetting  it. 

My  mother,  all  this  while,  was  weeping 
silently,  leaning  against  the  door.  But  now 
her  grief  was  turned  to  gladness,  for  lo,  and 
behold,  there  was  the  baby  asleep  in  the  basket 
on  the  veranda,  while  the  baboon  sat  on  a  pile 
of  bananas  giving  a  strange  monkey  call  to 
other  monkeys. 

Scarcely  had  we  taken  the  baby  into  the 
house  and  shut  the  glass  doors  of  the  veranda, 


Karl's  Adventure  in  Benares      55 

when  we  heard  monkeys  hooting  and  calling 
from  all  directions,  leaping  from  tree  to  tree 
and  falling  with  a  great  thud  on  our  roof.  In 
ten  minutes  the  veranda  became  a  regular  par- 
liament of  monkeys  chattering  over  their  din- 
ners. After  this  we  were  very  careful  about 
the  baby.  Every  time  she  was  put  out,  a  man 
or  woman  with  a  stick  always  watched  over  her. 
Remembering  now  what  had  happened  to 
my  sister  years  ago,  I  called  to  the  men  of  the 
caravan  who  had  not  yet  started  and  told  them 
the  monkey  had  the  purse.  True  enough,  one 
of  them  was  accusing  his  servant  of  having 
stolen  his  purse.  I  told  them  to  buy  some 
bananas  and  leave  them  under  the  tree,  and  in 
the  course  of  the  day  the  monkey  would  come 
down,  leave  the  purse  and  take  the  bananas. 
I  had  been  humiliated  by  my  elephant,  and 
now  being  disgusted  with  my  monkey,  I  took 
Kari  into  town  again.  This  time  I  had  my 
ankus  with  me,  so  that  in  case  he  should  run 
away  again  I  could  prick  his  neck  and  make 
him  behave. 


56  Kari  the  Elephant 

We  went  by  jewelers'  shops  where  they  were 
cutting  diamonds,  and  stopped  in  front  of  the 
goldsmith's  door.  Seeing  us  wait  there,  the 
smith  came  out.  "What  do  you  want,  do  you 
want  gold  rings  for  your  elephant's  tusks?" 
You  know  they  put  rings  on  elephant's  tusks 
as  human  beings  put  gold  in  their  teeth. 

"His  tusks  have  just  begun  to  sprout; 
they're  too  beautiful  to  spoil  with  rings  yet," 
I  answered. 

"But  my  rings  always  make  tusks  more 
beautiful,"  was  his  retort. 

I  answered,  "All  the  city  folk  think  that 
what  they  do  makes  everything  beautiful. 
Why  don't  they  make  their  dirty  city  beauti- 
ful?" 

The  smith  was  angry.  "If  thou  be  not  a 
buyer  of  gold,  nor  a  vendor  of  silver,  tarry 
not  at  my  door;  I  have  no  time  for  beggars." 

As  we  trotted  off,  I  called  back,  "I  do  not 
sell  silver,  nor  do  I  buy  gold,  but  when  my 
elephant  grows  up,  he  will  have  such  tusks  that 
you  will  cast  eyes  of  envy  on  them.  But  this 


Karl's  Adventure  in  Benares      57 

elephant  will  live  more  than  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  years  and  thou  shalt  be  dead  by 
then,  and  so  there  will  be  no  chance  of  soiling 
his  ivory  by  buying  thy  gold." 

We  walked  on  very  silently  through  the  city, 
and  then  of  a  sudden  a  pack  of  dogs  were 
upon  us.  We  knew  not  whence  they  had  come. 
Kari  was  as  dignified  as  a  mountain ;  he  never 
noticed  them,  but  the  less  attention  he  paid  to 
them,  the  more  audacious  the  dogs  grew.  They 
came  after  us  and  I  did  not  know  what  to  do, 
as  I  did  not  even  have  a  stone  to  throw  at  them. 
In  a  few  moments,  we  were  hemmed  in  by 
packs  of  dogs.  Quickly  now,  Kari  turned 
round  and  in  an  instant  lifted  a  dog  into  the  air 
with  his  trunk.  As  the  dog  would  have  been 
dashed  into  bits,  I  yelled  into  his  ear,  "Brother, 
brother,  do  not  kill  him,  but  let  him  down 
gently,  he  will  not  bite  you." 

At  this  moment  the  dog  gave  such  a  terrible 
cry  of  pain  as  the  trunk  was  coming  down  that 
Kari  stopped  and  slowly  brought  him  to  the 
ground.  The  dog,  however,  was  already  dead; 


58  Kari  the  Elephant 

the  pressure  of  the  trunk  had  killed  him,  and 
the  other  dogs,  seeing  his  fate,  had  already  run 
away. 

Kari  walked  rapidly  out  of  the  city  and  I 
was  heart-sick.  He  went  straight  to  the  river 
bank  and  with  great  difficulty  walked  down  the 
steps  of  the  Ghaut  and  buried  all  except  his 
trunk  in  the  water.  He  stood  there  knowing 
that  I  knew  that  he  had  done  something  wrong 
and  he  was  trying  to  cleanse  himself  of  it.  I, 
too,  took  my  bath. 

Late  in  the  afternoon,  we  went  back  and 
found  Kopee  still  sitting  on  the  same  tree  and 
looking  for  us,  as  the  caravan  had  left  long 
ago.  Judging  by  the  banana  peels  under  the 
trees,  we  realized  he  had  had  his  dinner.  Kari 
and  I,  however,  were  very  hungry  and  we  were 
both  sick  of  the  city.  We  did  not  want  to  see 
it  again,  so  I  called  to  the  monkey  to  follow 
and  urged  the  elephant  to  go  on  to  the  nearest 
forest.  Kopee,  with  one  leap,  jumped  on  my 
neck  as  I  sat  on  the  elephant's  back. 


Karl's  Adventure  in  Benares      59 

This  ended  Karl's  expedition  to  the  city.  It 
is  better  for  animals  to  be  where  the  jungle  is, 
for  the  jungle  is  sweeter  and  kinder  than  that 
wilderness  of  stones — the  city. 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  JUNGLE  SPIRIT 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  JUNGLE  SPIRIT 

IT  took  us  much  longer  to  return  home. 
We  lost  nearly  twenty-four  hours  in  a 
jungle  where  we  had  the  strangest  ex- 
periences of  our  lives.  We  had  already  cov- 
ered half  the  distance  when  one  day  at  noon 
we  reached  the  river  across  which  lay  the 
jungle.  It  was  so  hot  that  Kari  would  not  go 
any  further.  The  moment  he  smelled  the 
moist  earth  of  the  river  bank,  he  literally  ran 
into  the  water  and  lay  there.  Kopee  and  I 
had  to  sit  on  his  back,  while  the  waves  of  the 
river  played  around  us  as  the  waves  of  the  sea 
play  around  an  island.  Kari  kept  his  trunk 
above  the  water,  and  when  he  moved  we  almost 
fell  off  his  back.  The  monkey  clung  to  me,  for, 
as  you  know,  monkeys  do  not  know  how  to 
63 


64  Kari  the  Elephant 

swim.  There  are  two  reasons  why  monkeys 
are  afraid  of  the  water;  not  only  are  they  un- 
able to  swim  because  the  fingers  of  their  hands 
are  not  webbed  together  as  are  ducks'  toes,  but 
being  accustomed  to  go  through  the  air  by 
leaping  from  branch  to  branch,  they  think  that 
they  should  leap  from  place  to  place  in  the 
water. 

Seeing  that  the  elephant  was  wayward,  I 
told  Kopee  to  hold  on  to  my  head.  Then  I 
swam  ashore  and  waited  for  the  elephant  to 
come  out.  Now  that  we  were  off  his  back,  he 
raised  himself  a  little  above  the  water  and  be- 
gan to  draw  vast  quantities  of  water  up  his 
trunk  and  snorted  it  out  at  the  monkey  who 
was  running  up  and  down  the  shore,  chattering 
fiercely  and  keeping  at  a  safe  distance  to 
avoid  being  drenched. 

This  shows  that  elephants  have  a  sense  of 
humor.  They  always  know  where  to  keep  a 
monkey,  and  it  is  the  monkey's  business  to 
know  when  the  elephant  is  going  to  indulge  in 
humor. 


The  Jungle  Spirit  65 

As  elephants  do  not  know  that  monkeys  can- 
not swim,  I  was  afraid  that  if  Kopee  was  not 
careful,  Kari  might  throw  him  into  the  river 
for  fun,  and  that  would  have  been  the  end  of 
him. 

I  soon  forgot  the  elephant  and  the  monkey, 
however,  and  fell  asleep  on  the  river  bank.  I 
was  awakened  by  a  terrible  cry  from  the  mon- 
key and  a  trumpeting  from  the  elephant.  I 
sat  up  with  a  start  and  I  saw  Kopee  sitting 
on  the  ground  shivering  with  terror,  and  Kari 
standing  in  front  of  him,  waving  his  trunk  in 
the  air  and  trumpeting  for  all  he  was  worth. 
I  lay  on  the  ground  and  lifted  myself  on  my 
elbows.  Through  the  elephant's  legs  I  saw  a 
great  snake,  right  under  him,  held  almost  be- 
tween his  forelegs.  My  blood  congealed  in 
terror.  Of  course  Kari  was  five  years  old;  his 
skin  was  so  thick  that  the  cobra  could  never 
bite  deep  enough  to  bury  its  poisonous  fangs 
in  his  arteries.  The  monkey  was  hypnotized 
with  fear,  but  he  could  neither  run  away,  nor 


66  Kari  the  Elephant 

go  forward,  nor  come  to  me.  He  sat  there 
shivering  with  terror. 

I  crept  slyly  around  the  elephant  and  ap- 
proached Kopee.  I  knew  that  if  I  touched 
him,  he  would  turn  around  and  bite  me.  He 
was  so  frightened  that  anything  that  touched 
him  would  mean  to  his  excited  brain  only  the 
sting  of  the  snake.  The  idea  that  he  would  be 
stung  to  death  had  taken  possession  of  the 
whole  animal. 

I  could  now  see  what  had  happened.  The 
elephant  had  stepped  on  the  middle  of  the 
snake.  Its  back  was  broken  and  it  could  not 
move,  but  there  was  life  in  the  rest  of  its  body 
and  it  was  standing  erect  like  a  sharp  column 
of  ebony,  its  black  hood  with  a  white  mark  on 
it  spread  out  as  large  as  the  palm  of  a  man's 
hand.  Of  course,  it  could  not  stay  in  that  posi- 
tion long.  It  swayed  and  almost  fell  to  the 
ground.  The  moment  that  happened,  Kari 
raised  his  foot  and  put  it  down  on  the  snake's 
neck.  But  the  snake  lifted  up  its  head  in  such 
a  way  that  whenever  there  was  a  chance  for  the 


The  Jungle  Spirit  67 

elephant  to  put  his  foot  on  its  head  it  would 
immediately  raise  itself  on  its  broken  back.  Its 
agony  must  have  been  great,  yet  it  would  not 
give  in  for  a  long  time. 

As  the  snake  could  not  move  with  its  back 
broken  and  the  foot  of  the  elephant  still  on  it, 
I  knew  I  had  better  go  and  kill  it  with  a  stick. 
As  I  approached  it  with  my  stick,  the  monkey's 
eyes  which  had  been  fixed  on  the  snake,  sud- 
denly moved.  He  looked  at  me  and  bounded 
off  with  a  piercing,  chattering  yell  towards  the 
nearest  tree.  The  spirit  of  terror  that  had  held 
him  hypnotized  so  long  was  broken  at  last,  for 
he  had  seen  someone  who  could  kill  the  snake. 

The  moment  the  monkey  bounded  off,  the 
snake  stung  the  elephant's  toe  nails,  those 
horny  plates  around  his  feet.  This  is  a  vital 
spot,  as  the  arteries  come  very  near  the  surface. 
Knowing  this,  Kari  raised  his  foot.  Evidently 
he  was  not  hurt,  but  I  was  not  sure  how  long 
he  could  stand  on  three  legs.  I  was  also  afraid 
that  he  would  fall  and  bring  his  trunk  near 
the  snake,  and  any  snake  can  poison  an  ele- 


68  Kari  the  Elephant 

phant  by  stinging  the  end  of  his  trunk.  I  hit 
the  snake  on  the  head  with  my  stick,  but  instead 
of  striking  his  head,  the  stick  slipped  down  that 
ebony  column  which  was  still  standing  erect. 
Fortunately,  in  order  to  avert  the  next  blow, 
the  snake  fell  on  his  side.  That  very  instant 
the  up -raised  foot  of  the  elephant  was  on  his 
head. 

Kari  walked  away  and  pawed  the  sand  with 
his  feet  to  cleanse  them.  I  thought  of  calling 
to  Kopee  who  had  taken  refuge  on  a  tree-top, 
but  I  was  so  anxious  to  know  whether  the  ele- 
phant's foot  was  hurt  or  not,  that  I  followed 
him  about  until  he  let  me  look  at  it.  I  was 
relieved  to  see  that  the  skin  of  his  foot  had  not 
been  broken. 

Then  I  called  to  the  monkey  to  come  down 
from  the  tree.  He  shook  his  head.  I  knew 
he  was  so  ashamed  of  being  afraid  that  he  pre- 
ferred to  be  alone  in  the  privacy  of  the  tree  in 
order  to  gather  his  forces  together. 

The  sun  was  beginning  to  sink.    The  jungle 


The  Jungle  Spirit  69 

was  not  very  far  off  and  I  was  certain  that  the 
breeze  blowing  across  the  river  had  taken  the 
scent  of  human  beings  into  the  depths  of  the 
forest. 

The  twilight  came  swiftly.  The  bars  of  gold 
and  light  vibrated  over  the  tawny  waters,  and 
darkness  fell  like  a  black  sword,  cutting  the 
day  from  the  night.  The  voices  of  the  birds 
from  the  tree-tops,  here  and  there  died  down, 
and  as  if  to  enhance  the  silence,  insect  voices 
came  from  under  the  grass.  I  got  on  my  ele- 
phant's back  and  sat  there  quietly,  for  as  the 
evening  Silence  goes  by,  each  man  must  make 
his  prayer.  As  the  Silence  walked  on,  I  could 
see  the  grass  waving  in  zig-zag  curves  across 
the  river.  It  was  always  making  half  the  fig- 
ure eight  in  the  undergrowth  of  the  jungle. 

Gradually  all  grew  still  and  then  over  the 
river  came  the  terrible  hunger  wail  of  a  tiger. 
That  instant  its  tawny  face  scarred  with  black 
emerged  from  behind  green  leaves.  He  saw  I 
was  across  the  river.  The  tiger's  body  is 


70  Kari  the  Elephant 

marked  with  the  same  stripes  and  curves  as  he 
makes  in  the  grass  when  he  walks,  and  people 
in  the  jungle  can  always  tell  by  the  wave  of  the 
grass  which  animal  has  passed  that  way. 

Throughout  the  countryside,  wherever  the 
echo  of  the  wail  was  heard,  a  tension  fell  upon 
everything.  Even  the  saplings  were  tense,  and 
you  could  almost  hear  the  cracking  of  the 
muscles  of  the  animals  holding  themselves  to- 
gether and  watching  which  way  the  tiger  would 
pass.  It  was  as  if  the  horn  of  the  chase  had 
sounded  and  blown;  each  one  had  to  take  to 
cover. 

Night  came  on  apace.  I  wanted  to  tie 
Kari  to  a  big  tree,  but  he  refused  to  be  tied  up 
that  night.  He  paced  up  and  down  the  shore 
without  making  the  slightest  noise.  Then  he 
would  suddenly  stand  still  and  stop  the  waving 
of  his  ears  in  order  to  listen  very  intently  to 
shadows  of  songs  that  might  be  passing.  I 
stayed  on  his  back,  intent  on  knowing  what  he 
was  going  to  do.  Soon,  very  soon,  the  river 


The  Jungle  Spirit  71 

became  silver-yellow  and  over  the  jungle  a 
quickening  silence  throbbed  from  leaf  to  leaf. 

Then  swiftly  the  terrible  face  of  the  moon 
was  upon  us.  Kari  snorted  and  stepped  back- 
wards. I,  too,  was  surprised  because  this  was 
another  moon,  very  rarely  seen  by  men.  It 
was  the  moon  bringing  the  call  of  the  summer 
to  the  jungle.  It  was  the  call  for  hunt  and 
challenge,  when  elephants  kill  elephants  to  win 
their  mates.  And  under  the  moon  lay  a  great 
•sinister  figure  like  the  terrible  face  of  a  dragon. 

The  July  cloud  was  hovering  in  the  distance, 
and  between  the  cloud-banks  and  the  moon  I 
saw  strange  things,  as  if  throngs  of  white  ani- 
mals were  going  from  sky  to  sky — I  don't 
know  why— no  one  ever  knows.  These  are  the 
spirits  of  the  jungle,  the  dead  ancestors  of  the 
animals  now  living. 

Without  warning,  Kari  now  plunged  into 
the  river.  I  spoke  to  him,  scratched  his  neck 
with  the  ankus,  but  he  would  not  stop.  He 
'forded  the  river,  at  times  almost  drowning, 


72  Kari  the  Elephant 

and  charged  madly  up  the  other  shore,  where 
we  were  lost  in  the  darkness  of  leaves  and  vines. 
No  moonlight  fell  on  us,  not  even  the  knowl- 
edge that  the  moon  was  up  could  be  vouched 
for  in  this  thick  black  place. 


CHAPTER  VI 
KARI'S  STORY 


CHAPTER  VI 
KARI'S  STORY 

I  CANNOT  tell  how  many  hours  passed. 
I  think  I  fell  asleep,  but  perhaps  I  saw 
this  waking — I  cannot  tell.     Suddenly 
Kari's  face  changed.    He  moved  his  eyes  for- 
ward, looked  at  me,  and  said: 

"Brother,  this  is  the  night  of  the  jungle  and 
I  want  you  to  hear  a  tale  that  my  mother  told 
me  when  I  was  four  months  old,  and  still  roam- 
ing in  the  jungle.  That  was  a  short  time  be- 
fore she  and  I  were  captured  by  men.  I  was 
born  near  the  foot-hills  of  the  Himalayas,  for 
the  snow-covered  mountains  could  be  seen  in 
the  distance,  but  we  elephants  were  so  proud  of 
our  own  height  that  we  never  bothered  about 
the  hills.  I  once  asked  my  mother,  'Why  do 
tigers  smell  like  this?  Wherever  a  tiger  goes, 

75 


76  Kari  the  Elephant 

he  brings  a  terrible  stench  with  him.'  This  is 
what  she  told  me: 

"  'Every  animal  that  lives  in  the  jungle  is 
born  to  one  kind  of  food  or  another.  He  either 
eats  meat  or  he  lives  on  herbs  and  fruits.  Those 
who  eat  herbs  never  hate  or  fear,  but  those  who 
eat  other  animals  are  tainted  with  both.  We 
elephants  never  fear  anyone  or  hate  anyone 
and  that  is  why  we  exude  no  stench,  but  a 
tiger  has  to  live  by  killing.  In  order  to  kill 
one  must  hate,  and  in  order  to  hate  one  must 
fear,  and  those  spirits  that  you  see  walking 
through  the  air  have  taught  all  animals  the 
secret  of  the  jungle. 

"  'Now  the  secret  of  the  jungle  is  this — the 
animal  that  lives  by  killing  is  diseased.  He 
carries  a  strange,  festering  sore  within  him  and 
that  poisons  his  whole  blood.  Wherever  he 
goes  the  stench  of  that  poison  reaches  other 
animals,  and  this  mother  of  us  all  who  loves 
tigers,  as  well  as  the  antelopes  they  kill,  is  so 
wise  that  animals  that  kill  must  be  branded 
so  that  their  victims  will  be  able  to  take  shelter. 


Karl's  Story  77 

For  this  reason  wherever  the  tiger  goes  his 
stench  precedes  him,  and  knowing  this  the  fox 
comes  out  of  his  little  hole  and  calls  through 
the  jungle  that  the  tiger  is  out.  Hence,  here 
in  the  night  when  the  moonlight  falls  on  the 
thickest  gloom,  following  the  plaintive  cry,  the 
cunning  fox,  the  servant  of  our  mother,  threads 
its  way  through  the  jungle  giving  the  warning 
to  all  animals.' 

"Very  soon  one  sees  the  black  form  of  a  tiger 
moving  in  the  moonlight  without  the  slightest 
sound.  He  never  attacks  elephants.  After  he 
passes,  the  horrible  smell  of  carnage  grows  less 
and  less,  and  then  another  fox  gives  the  call 
throughout  the  jungle,  telling  the  animals  that 
the  tiger  has  passed. 

"If  on  the  morrow  thou  comest  to  the  same 
spot  where  the  tiger  and  fox  have  passed,  thou 
shalt  not  find  a  trace  of  their  coming  and  going 
for  it  is  the  law  of  the  jungle  that  no  animal 
leaves  the  mark  of  his  foot  or  the  stain  of  his 
presence  on  leaves  or  grass.  The  victims  of  the 
tiger  dare  not  leave  footprints  for  it  will  give 


78  Kari  the  Elephant 

away  their  whereabouts.  The  chita,  the  tiger, 
and  even  the  wild  cats  who  live  by  killing,  leave 
no  trace  behind.  And  that  is  why  the  dwelling 
of  men  annoys  me  so;  they  cannot  even  raise 
their  heads  without  disturbing  the  air." 

In  my  dream,  I  asked  him,  "How  did  you 
live  with  your  elephant  mother  in  the  jungle?" 

"Our  life  was  a  playing  and  a  toil,"  he  an- 
swered, "but  the  toil  was  a  playing,  and  the 
playing  was  a  toil.  When  the  leaves  began  to 
get  crisp  and  colored  and  the  sun  called  us  to 
the  South,  we  would  leave  the  foot-hills  of  the 
Himalayas  and  follow  the  sacred  river  bed 
through  vast  forest  lanes,  going  further  and 
further  south.  Time  and  again  we  would 
come  to  dwellings  of  men.  How  wretched  are 
men!  Wherever  they  go  they  murder  trees 
and  slaughter  forests!  And  in  these  comings 
and  goings,  I  saw  strange  things. 

"One  winter  we  came  to  jungles  on  the  sea- 
shore where  I  saw  crocodiles  lying  on  the  banks 
of  the  Delta  in  the  daytime,  with  their  mouths 
open  and  little  birds  going  in  and  out  of  them, 


Kan's  Story  79 

cleaning  their  teeth,  and  eating  all  the  insects 
that  poison  their  gums.  It  is  a  pity  we  ele- 
phants have  no  birds  to  clean  our  teeth.  And, 
there  too,  even  in  the  water  you  could  smell 
animals  that  lived  on  other  animals. 

"When  we  traveled,  the  old  male  masters 
went  first,  then  the  children,  then  babies  and  the 
mothers,  and  in  the  rear  all  the  maidens  and 
young  fathers.  When  we  went  to  sleep  at 
night,  the  old  ones  made  a  ring  of  tusks,  within 
which  the  young  maids  and  the  males  each 
made  rings,  and  in  that  triple  ring  we  children 
slept  guarded  by  elephants  and  stars.  In  my 
sleep  in  the  jungle  I  have  seen  elephant  ghosts 
in  the  sky  shaking  their  tusks  of  lightning, 
roaring  in  anger  and  battling  with  the  moon. 
These  elephants  of  the  sky  are  our  dead  an- 
cestors watching  over  us.  You  know,  in  the 
beginning,  elephants  ruled  over  all  other  ani- 
mals, and  hence,  men  and  monkeys  and  snakes 
and  tigers  were  created." 

"Who  made  the  rhinoceros?"  I  asked  in  my 
dream. 


8o  Kari  the  Elephant 

"The  rhinoceros,"  Kari  answered,  "is  a  way- 
ward elephant.  Once  when  our  ancestors  were 
making  a  very  beautiful  animal  they  fell 
asleep,  They  had  already  completed  the  thick 
hide  and  the  small  legs,  when  some  malicious 
spirit  completed  the  head  and  instead  of  put- 
ting a  trunk  put  a  horn  on  it,  and  that  is  why 
the  rhinoceros  goes  through  the  jungle  like  a 
spirit  of  evil.  Dost  thou  not  hear  him  coming 
tonight?  The  trees  are  falling  and  the  sap- 
lings are  cracking.  The  rhinoceros  is  snorting. 
That  is  the  way  of  his  coming;  wherever  he 
goes  he  carries  destruction  before  him  and  he 
is  not  afraid  to  leave  a  trail  behind,  for  no  ani- 
mal could  kill  him  and  tigers  do  not  want  to 
kill  him  because  they  cannot  get  beyond  his 
hide." 

That  minute  a  tall  tree  fell  in  front  of  us 
and  the  raging  rhinoceros  went  by. 

"Why  does  he  walk  straight?"  I  said  to 
Kari.  "Most  animals  do  not." 

"Only  the  well-born  go  round,"  Kari  said. 


Karl's  Story  81 

"The  ill-bred  find  the  shortest  road  to  every- 
thing." 

Just  then  there  was  a  stillness  in  the  jungle 
and  from  nowhere,  like  marching  clouds, 
came  herds  of  elephants,  silent  and  slow. 
Above  there  was  no  light.  A  vast  blackness 
had  been  spread  over  the  stars  and  moon,  and 
throughout  the  gloom  beyond  there  was  a  sing- 
ing and  an  eagerness. 

"Go  up  the  tree,"  Kari  said  to  me.  "I  want 
to  be  rid  of  you  tonight." 

Sleeping  or  dreaming — I  do  not  know— I 
did  his  bidding  and  then  saw  Kari  stand  and 
give  a  call  and  the  whole  elephant  herd 
stopped.  I  could  understand  everything  they 
said;  and  when  they  looked  at  him  some  of  the 
young  elephants  laughed,  "Look,  he  has  the 
mark  of  a  chain  on  his  ankle;  he  bears  the 
slavery  of  man." 

Kari  raised  his  trunk  and  silenced  their  silly 
chatter  by  trumpeting.  Then  he  said,  "I  want 
a  mate  tonight.  How  many  of  you  free-born 
want  to  test  my  strength?" 


82  Kari  the  Elephant 

One  of  the  young  elephants  said,  "How  old 
are  you?" 

"There  is  no  age  to  a  hero,"  answered  Kari. 

One  of  the  elephants,  the  leader  of  the  herd, 
shook  his  head.  "We  have  amongst  us  young- 
lings who  have  taught  tigers  humility ;  we  have 
amongst  us  younglings  who  have  broken  hill- 
ocks with  their  fury,  and  pulled  down  the 
thickest  trees  of  the  jungle.  So  thou,  man 
lover,  temper  thy  speech  to  humility;  it  is  not 
meet  for  thee  to  seek  a  bride  amongst  the  free- 
born." 

Kari  snorted  and  said,  "Give  forth  the  chal- 
lenge, I  accept."  And  one  of  the  elephants 
with  two  small  tusks  just  coming  out  of  his 
mouth  stood  out  from  the  herd  and  trumpeted. 
Kari  stood  and  a  quiver  ran  through  his  mus- 
cles and  I  could  see  his  body  throb.  "Don't 
be  afraid,"  I  whispered  to  him.  "We  have 
taught  you  the  tale  of  man ;  he  does  not  know 
it." 

He  waved  his  trunk  at  me  and  then  plunged 
into  the  other  elephant.  The  whole  herd  stood 


Kari's  Story  83 

around  and  watched  the  fight.  In  a  few  mo- 
ments a  young  girl  elephant  stood  apart  from 
the  herd,  watching  the  fight,  and  I  knew  she 
was  the  prize  of  this  battle.  First  they  put 
their  trunks  together  and  bellowed.  Then  the 
two  mountains  of  flesh  bounded  at  each  other 
as  if  hills  were  striking  hills.  As  I  have  said 
before,  Kari's  tusks  were  not  long  enough  to 
be  of  any  \ise,  so  every  time  they  crushed 
against  each  other  Kari  had  to  be  very  careful 
to  avoid  the  other's  tusks. 

At  last  their  trunks  came  together  and  their 
bodies  were  tightly  pinioned.  They  looked  like 
a  great  mountain  spinning  round  and  round. 
There  was  a  pause  and  Kari  rose  on  his  hind 
legs  and  held  his  front  legs  up.  That  instant 
the  wild  elephant  let  go  of  his  trunk  and  leapt 
to  cut  Kari's  trunk  with  his  tusks,  but  before 
he  could  do  that,  Kari  struck  him  on  the  head 
and  he  went  reeling  into  the  distance.  He 
would  have  fallen  if  he  had  not  struck  against 
a  tree,  and  if  an  elephant  falls,  that  is  the  end 
of  the  battle. 


84  Kari  the  Elephant 

As  Kari  thought  he  had  struck  his  opponent 
down,  he  stood  there  feeling  victorious  and  I 
could  see  a  shiver  of  relief  going  through  Kis 
body.  The  other  elephant,  however,  gauged 
the  distance  and  came  upon  him  again  with 
great  momentum.  Before  Kari  realized  what 
had  happened,  the  elephant  gored  him  with 
his  tusks.  Kari  gave  a  painful  yell,  and  walk- 
ing backwards  drew  his  neck  from  the  tusks  of 
his  opponent.  I  could  feel  a  quake  go  through 
him  as  a  tree  which  has  just  been  cut  throbs 
before  it  falls. 

The  herd  yelled,  and  shook  their  heads  with 
great  glee,  whispering,  "We  have  won."  Then 
Kari  began  to  walk  in  a  circle.  The  other  ele- 
phant did  likewise  and  they  faced  each  other. 
Now  and  then  they  would  come  close  together; 
their  trunks  would  strike  each  other,  then  they 
would  separate  and  go  around  again. 

By  this  time  the  sky  was  black  and  the  livid 
tongue  of  the  lightning  flickered  on  the  crest 
of  the  clouds.  But  the  rumble  of  the  thunder 


Karl's  Story  85 

could  not  be  heard  because  the  two  elephants 
were  trumpeting  so  loudly. 

Again  they  locked  trunks  and  bodies  and 
spun  around.  Quickly  Kari  released  his  trunk 
and  stood  aside,  leaving  the  other  elephant  to 
go  spinning  against  the  herd.  That  instant 
Kari  ran  forward  and  struck  the  side  of  the 
other  elephant,  giving  him  a  broad-side  blow 
and  throwing  him  on  the  ground.  The  herd 
scattered  and  a  clamor  of  wonder  spread  from 
elephant  to  elephant.  Kari  rose  on  his  hind 
legs  and  fell  upon  his  opponent  with  his  fore- 
feet, as  he  started  to  rise.  The  oldest  elephant 
said,  "It  is  done."  At  this  the  herd  slunk 
away  slowly  and  the  beaten  elephant  was  seen 
no  more. 

t  The  female  who  was  waiting  for  the  end  of 
this  battle  came  up  to  Kari  and  they  put  their 
trunks  together.  A  deafening  crash  of  thunder 
fell  upon  the  forest  and  the  lightning  was  strik- 
ing trees  far  and  near.  A  terrible  deluge  of 
rain  came  and  blotted  everything  out  of  sight. 
I  clung  to  the  branch  of  my  tree  for  fear  I 


86  Kari  the  Elephant 

might  be  washed  down  to  the  ground.  I  do  not 
know  how  long  it  rained.  When  I  looked  up, 
I  could  see  that  there  was  a  white  light  above, 
but  the  rain  was  still  falling  on  me.  Then  I 
realized  that  the  foliage  above  my  head  was  so 
thick  that  the  raindrops  were  caught  in  it  arid 
were  still  coming  down.  I  did  not  dare  to  go 
up  further  into  the  tree,  for  the  branches  were 
very  slippery,  so  I  stayed  until  every  drop  of 
water  had  fallen. 

The  moon  set  and  I  could  hear  all  kinds  of 
noises.  Many  animals  were  moving  about. 
From  the  tree-top  I  heard  the  shaking  of  the 
coats  of  the  monkey,  and  below  on  the  ground 
I  felt  the  heaving  of  hoofs  on  the  wet  grass. 
Then  all  this  stopped  and  on  the  wet  under- 
growth again  there  was  a  movement  like  the 
zig-zag  stripe  of  the  tiger's  skin. 

Suddenly,  there  was  a  bark  followed  by  a 
deafening  roar  and  then  the  thud  of  a  leaping 
body  falling  on  the  ground.  The  tiger  had 
found  his  kill.  You  know  the  tiger  has  three 
different  calls — the  hunger  wail  which  is  like 
a  terrible  sound  cutting  the  jungle  with  hate; 


THE   TIGER   HAD    FOUND    HIS   KILL 


Kari's  Story  87 

then  the  snorting  bark  of  the  tiger  which  means 
that  he  is  nearing  his  prey;  and  then  through 
the  stillnes  of  the  jungle,  one  hears  his  third 
call,  the  triumphant  roar  of  the  kill,  which 
means  that  he  has  found  his  prey.  This  roar 
has  a  terrible  effect  on  the  victim ;  it  paralyzes 
him  with  terror,  and  like  a  lightning  flash, 
along  with  the  roar,  the  tiger  falls  upon  his 
prey.  This  is  just  what  was  happening  now 
a  short  while  before  sunrise.  The  tiger 
growled  now  and  then  to  announce  that  he  had 
had  his  dinner  and  then  other  small  animals 
came  up  and  fell  upon  the  prey  after  he  had 
left  it. 

All  the  animals  who  had  taken  shelter  in 
their  lairs  and  holes  during  the  rain  were  now 
beginning  to  come  out.  This  morning  there 
was  no  silence  in  the  jungle;  in  the  small  hours 
all  the  animals  were  eager  to  get  something 
to  eat,  so  that  by  day -break  they  could  go  to 
sleep  with  something  in  their  stomachs.  When 
the  dawn  came,  I  saw  Kari  standing  under  the 
tree  in  the  thick  twilight  under  the  foliage.  £ 
came  down  on  the  ground  to  find  traces  of  the 


88  Kari  the  Elephant 

struggle  of  the  night.  The  rain  had  washed  it 
all  away,  but  as  I  got  up  and  touched  Kari's 
neck,  he  winced  and  I  knew  that  the  marks  he 
bore  were  the  only  testimony  of  the  battle. 

We  went  back  across  the  river,  and  found 
Kopee  there,  wet  and  miserable.  He  was  glad 
to  get  down  from  the  tree  and  get  on  the  ele- 
phant's back  and  feel  the  sunlight  on  his  skin. 
I  urged  Kari  to  get  him  something  to  eat,  but 
he  would  not  hear  of  it,  so  we  hastened  back 
toward  the  village.  On  our  way  home,  I  veri- 
fied the  law  of  the  jungle,  for  Kari  had  really 
developed  a  slight  stench.  You  may  say  that 
it  was  the  wound  that  gave  the  odor,  but  I  do 
not  think  so.  When  he  went  to  war  and  bat- 
tled with  another  elephant,  he  must  have  hated 
as  well  as  feared,  and  the  smell  of  fear  and  hate 
was  upon  him.  It  took  nearly  a  fortnight  to 
wash  the  stench  away  from  him,  and  you  must 
remember  that  it  was  not  the  bathing  in  the 
water  that  did  it.  It  was  in  the  gentle  care  and 
friendship  of  the  village  that  Kari  gradually 
forgot  to  hate  his  enemy. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  TIGER  HUNT 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  TIGER  HUNT 

I  HAVE  told  you  that  Kari  was  not  a 
hunting  elephant.    After  that  experience 
in  the  jungle,  however,  he  seemed  to  be 
above  all  fear  and  surprise.    On  many  occa- 
sions he  showed  such  dignity  and  composure 
that  one  could  not  recognize  in  him  the  old, 
nervous  beast.     Apparently  that  battle  with 
the  wild  elephant  gave  him  such  confidence  in 
his  own  strength  that  from  that  time  on  no 
incident  could  surprise  him. 

You  do  not  know  what  music  can  do  for 
animals.  If  you  took  a  flute  and  played  cer- 
tain tunes  on  it,  all  of  the  snakes  would  come 
out  of  their  holes  and  dance  to  the  music! 
There  is  supposed  to  be  a  kind  of  flower,  like 
a  sensitive  plant,  that  can  he  put  to  sleep  by 
91 


92  Kari  the  Elephant 

the  playing  of  a  very  delicate  tune.  I  have 
seen  with  my  own  eyes  how  fond  the  deer  are  of 
music.  Sometimes  in  the  middle  of  the  after- 
noon, if  you  stand  on  the  edge  of  the  forest 
and  play  your  flute  and  slowly  strike  the  notes 
which  sound  like  the  whistling  call  of  the  ante- 
lope, you  will  see  a  strange  phenomenon.  The 
deer  generally  bark,  but  they  also  give  a  whist- 
ling call. 

As  I  was  playing  my  flute  one  afternoon,  I 
remember  distinctly  that  nothing  happened  for 
a  while.  I  stopped  and  tried  another  tune.  I 
heard  a  strange  rustle  in  the  leaves  of  the  small 
plants  of  the  jungle;  but  nothing  came  of  it. 
Again  I  changed  my  tune  and  played  on. 
This  time  even,  the  leaves  did  not  move,  so  I 
was  sure  my  flute  was  not  catching  the  ear  of 
any  animal.  I  was  heart-broken.  I  had  gone 
to  test  my  knowledge  of  flute-playing,  but  I 
found  out  that  I  could  not  attract  any  animal. 

It  was  getting  late;  the  darkness  of  the 
jungle  became  thicker  and  thicker,  though  the 
April  sun  was  still  scorching  the  open  meadow. 


IF  YOU  TOOK  A  FLUTE  AND  PLAYED  CERTAIN  TUNES  ON  IT, 
ALL  OF  THE  SNAKES  WOULD  COME  OUT  OF  THEIR  HOLES 
AND  DANCE  TO  THE  MUSIC 


The  Tiger  Hunt  93 

At  last  in  desperation,  I  tried  my  only  re- 
maining tune,  not  being  very  proficient  on  the 
flute.  For  a  while  nothing  happened.  I 
played  so  intently  that  I  paid  attention  to 
nothing  else  and  was  greatly  startled  to  hear 
a  noise  as  if  someone  were  pulling  on  a  rope. 
I  looked  up  and  there  was  a  stag  whose  nos- 
trils were  quivering  with  excitement  as  if  he 
scented  the  music.  His  beautiful  forked  horns 
were  caught  up  in  a  creeper  hanging  from  a 
tree,  from  which  he  was  trying  to  free  him- 
self. I  kept  on  playing,  but  did  not  take  my 
eyes  from  him.  At  last  he  freed  himself  from 
the  vine,  but  a  tendril  still  clung  to  his  horns 
like  a  crown  of  green.  He  came  nearer  and 
stood  still. 

I  kept  on  playing,  and  one  by  one  more 
golden  faces  began  to  come  out  from  behind 
the  foliage  of  the  jungle.  The  spotted  fawn, 
the  musk-deer,  gazelles  and  antelopes,  all 
seemed  to  answer  the  call  of  the  music.  I 
stopped  playing.  That  instant  a  shiver  went 
through  the  herd;  the  stag  stamped  his  foot 


94  Kari  the  Elephant 

on  the  ground'  and  as  swiftly  as  the  waving  of 
a  blade  of  grass  in  the  breeze  they  all  disap- 
peared in  the  forest.  I  could  feel  in  the  dis- 
tance the  shiver  of  the  undergrowth  of  grass 
and  saplings  indicating  the  way  the  animals 
had  passed. 

Knowing  this  power  of  music  over  animals, 
I  wanted  to  train  Kari  and  Eopee  to  follow 
the  tunes  of  my  flute.  Kopee  was  such  a  mon- 
key that  I  could  not  make  him  listen.  When- 
ever I  began  to  play  the  flute,  he  would  go  to 
sleep  or  run  up  a  tree.  Monkeys  have  no 
brains. 

Kari,  on  the  contrary,  though  much  worse 
at  first,  was  more  sensible.  He  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  any  tune  that  I  played,  but  once  in  a 
while,  I  would  strike  a  note  that  would  make 
him  stop  still  and  listen,  and  I  could  tell  by 
his  manner  that  this  tune  went  home.  Those 
long  fanning  ears  of  his  would  stop  waving  and 
the  restless  trunk  would  be  still  for  a  moment. 
Unfortunately,  the  notes  that  really  reached 
his-  soul  were  very  few-— I  could  hardly  sustain 


The  Tiger  Hunt  95 

them  for  more  than  a  minute  and  a  half. 
Weeks  passed  before  I  could  get  them  back 
again. 

One  day  after  the  battle  with  the  wild  ele- 
phant in  the  jungle,  I  took  up  the  flute  again 
and  began  to  play  for  him.  I  tried  many  notes 
and  chords.  At  last  I  could  sustain  the  tones 
he  liked  for  more  than  three  minutes.  By  the 
end  of  August,  I  could  make  Kari  listen  to  rny 
music  for  ten  minutes  at  a  time.  When  an- 
other winter  had  passed  and  summer  came 
again,  I  could  really  command  him  with  my 
music.  I  could  sit  on  his  back,  almost  on  his 
neck,  and  play  the  flute,  never  saying  a  word, 
and  guide  him  for  days  and  days. 

This  summer  a  very  daring  tiger  visited  our 
village.  His  head  looked  like  a  tower  and  his 
body  was  as  large  as  that  of  an  ox.  At  first 
he  came  in  the  night  and  killed  oxen  or  buffa- 
loes, but  one  night  he  killed  a  man,  and  after 
that  he  never  killed  anything  but  men,  for  the 
tiger  is  as  fond  of  human  meat  as  we  are  of 
chicken. 


96  Kari  the  Elephant 

Our  house  was  very  near  the  jungle;  all  our 
windows  were  barred  with  iron.  Nothing  could 
go  in  or  out  through  them  except  mosquitoes 
or  flies.  One  evening  I  was  sitting  at  my  win- 
dow at  about  eight  o'clock.  I  heard  the  cry 
of  the  Fayu,  the  fox  which  goes  ahead  of  the 
tiger,  giving  the  warning  call  to  all  the  other 
animals.  Then,  as  the  darkness  that  night  was 
not  very  intense,  I  could  see  the  fox  go  by. 
Soon  I  could  actually  inhale  the  odor  of  a  tiger. 

In  a  few  moments  an  enormous  black  crea- 
ture came  and  stood  in  front  of  the  window. 
As  he  sat  down,  the  call  of  the  fox  in  the  dis- 
tance stopped.  After  a  while  the  tiger  stood 
up  and  walked  toward  the  window.  That  in- 
stant, the  fox  in  the  distance  began  to  call.  I 
was  very  frightened,  but  as  I  wanted  to  see 
the  tiger  clearly,  I  lit  a  match.  He  was  so 
frightened  by  the  sight  of  fire  that  with  one 
growl  he  bounded  off. 

After  that  the  tiger  took  to  coming  early  in 
the  afternoons.  One  day  about  four  o'clock, 
we  saw  him  standing  on  a  rock  across  the  river, 


The  Tiger  Hunt  97 

looking  at  the  village.  The  river  was  very 
shallow,  hardly  five  inches  deep,  but  it  was 
very  broad  and  full  of  sand  bars.  He  stood 
looking  at  the  village  and  growling  with  great 
joy.  In  India  the  government  does  not  allow 
the  people  to  carry  rifles  of  any  sort,  so  when- 
ever a  tiger  or  a  leopard  makes  a  nuisance  of 
himself  around  the  village  you  generally  have 
to  send  for  a  British  official  to  come  and  kill 
him.  Word  was  sent  to  the  magistrate  of  our 
district.  In  a  few  days  a  chubby-faced  En- 
glishman appeared.  In  the  Indian  sun  the  red 
face  of  the  Westerner  looks  even  redder. 

There  are  certain  rules  by  which  men  hunt 
in  India.  You  never  shoot  an  animal  weaker 
than  yourself,  and  if  you  want  to  shoot  a  tiger 
or  a  leopard,  you  give  it  a  warning.  If  you  do 
not  do  so,  you  generally  pay  for  it.  After  the 
British  official  appeared,  I  was  allowed  to  take 
him  on  my  elephant  and  go  out  in  the  open  to 
show  him  that  Kari  was  fit  for  hunting.  He 
fired  a  number  of  shots  and  killed  several  birds. 
Kari,  who  had  never  heard  a  shot  before,  and 


98  Kari  the  Elephant 

whom  everyone  expected  to  be  frightened,  did 
not  pay  the  slightest  attention  to  all  the  clamor 
of  flying  bullets.  He  knew  at  heart  he  was  the 
master  of  the  jungle,  and  hence  nothing  could 
surprise  him.  It  is  said  in  India  that  the  mark 
of  a  gentleman  is  that  he  is  never  surprised* 
That  shows  that  Kari's  ancestors  were  un- 
doubtedly very  gentle  elephants. 

After  killing  some  more  birds,  the  magis- 
trate became  quite  convinced  that  Kari  would 
do  for  the  hunt,  so  one  morning  about  four 
o'clock  we  started  out.  I  sat  almost  on  the 
neck  of  my  elephant  playing  my  flute,  and  the 
magistrate  sat  in  the  howdah  which  had  been 
especially  prepared  for  hint,  since  he  was  not 
accustomed  to  riding  elephants  any  other  way. 
iWe  crossed  the  river  and  went  far  into  the 
jungle.  Beaters  had  gone  ahead  in  large 
groups  to  stir  up  the  jungle  from  all  direc- 
tions. It  was  very  difficult  to  go  through  the 
jungle  with  the  howdah  on  the  elephant's  back, 
and  we  had  to  edge  our  way  along  between 
branches  and  trees. 


The  Tiger  Hunt  99 

After  riding  for  at  least  two  hours,  we  came 
to  an  open  space  and  it  was  agreed  that  the 
beaters  should  drive  all  the  animals  to  this 
clearing.  This  morning  the  sunrise  was  full 
of  noise  and  without  any  of  the  soft  and  deli- 
cate silences  which  usually  mark  day-break  in 
the  jungle.  I  felt  quite  out  of  humor  and  ap- 
parently Kari  was  bored  to  death.  He  kept 
on  pulling  at  one  twig  after  another  with  his 
trunk,  nibbling  and  wasting  everything.  Our 
passenger  did  not  know  any  language  but 
English,  and  as  I  knew  nothing  of  English  at 
that  time,  we  spoke  very  little  and  only  by 
signs. 

The  first  animals  to  come  before  us  were  a 
herd  of  antelopes  which  dashed  towards  us  like 
burnt  gold  flashing  through  emerald  water. 
After  they  had  passed,  a  lull  fell  on  the  scene, 
which  was  soon  broken  by  the  grunt  and  snort 
of  a  rhinoceros.  He  rushed  forward  in  a 
straight  line,  as  usual,  breaking  and  tearing 
everything.  Kari  averted  his  gaze  because  ele- 
phants are  always  irritated  by  the  ostentatious 


loo  Kari  the  Elephant 

bustle  of  a  rhinoceros.  Then,  soon  after  him 
we  saw  a  horned  boar  rushing  like  a  black 
javelin  through  the  air,  followed  by  many  ani- 
mals, weasels  and  wild  cats,  and  once  in  a  while 
a  chita  with  its  spotted  skin.  They  refused  to 
come  out  in  the  open,  however,  but  always 
went  behind  the  screen  of  foliage  and  grass, 
for  they  had  smelled  the  danger  signal,  man 
and  elephant. 

Every  little  while  we  heard  a  passionate  and 
angry  growl.  When  this  sound  reached  our 
ears,  the  magistrate  would  sit  up  with  his  rifle 
to  take  aim.  Then  there  would  be  a  lull.  Now 
we  could  hear  the  cry  of  the  beaters  in  the  dis- 
tance coming  nearer  and  nearer.  Suddenly  a 
herd  of  elephants  passed.  They  made  no  noise 
and  left  no  trace,  but  passed  by  like  walking 
cathedrals. 

Again  the  angry  growl  fell  on  the  jungle, 
but  this  time  it  was  ahead  of  us.  The  beaters 
cried  out  again  close  by,  but  all  were  silenced 
by  the  roar  of  the  approaching  tiger.  With 
one  bound  he  appeared  in  the  clearing,  but 


The  Tiger  Hunt  ioi 

immediately  disappeared  again.  We  could  see 
him  passing  from  one  bush  to  another;  and 
when  he  stopped  we  caught  a  glimpse  of  his 
hind  legs.  Without  any  warning  the  magis- 
trate fired  and  like  a  thunder  bolt,  the  tiger 
leaped  in  front  of  the  elephant  with  one  roar. 
Kari  reared;  he  walked  backwards  and  stood 
with  his  back  against  a  tree.  The  magistrate 
could  not  shoot  at  the  tiger  without  sending  a 
bullet  through  my  head,  so  he  had  to  wait. 

Then  with  a  leap  the  tiger  was  by  the  side 
of  the  elephant,  so  close  to  the  howdah  that 
there  was  not  the  distance  of  even  a  rifle  be- 
tween him  and  the  magistrate.  I  stopped  my 
flute  playing  to  swear  at  the  magistrate.  I 
said,  "You  brother  of  a  pig;  why  did  you  not 
give  him  warning  before  you  shot?  Who  has 
ever  heard  of  killing  an  animal  without  seeing 
him  face  to  face?  Can  you  kill  a  tiger  by 
breaking  his  hind  leg  with  a  bullet?" 

The  man  was  livid  with  terror.  He  had  the 
rifle  in  his  hand  but  the  tiger  was  reaching  over 
the  howdah  and  stretching  out  his  paw  to  get 


102  Kari  the  Elephant 

'him.  He  did  not  know  what  to  do.  Kari  shook 
himself  with  all  his  strength  but  he  could  not 
shake  the  tiger  off.  He  trumpeted  in  great 
.pain  because  the  tiger's  claws  were  cutting 
into  his  flesh.  He  raised  his  trunk,  swayed  his 
body  and  bounded  against  a  tree  behind  him; 
but  still  the  tiger  could  not  be  shaken  off .  The . 
nearer  the  tiger's  paw  came,  the  more  the 
magistrate  tried  to  lean  against  the  side  of  the 
howdah.  Pretty  soon  he  moved  towards  the 
elephant's  rear,  and  thus  reached  a  corner  of 
the  howdah  which  gave  him  almost  as  much 
space  as  the  length  of  a  rifle.  I  saw  the  eye  of 
the  tiger  turn  first  red  and  then  yellow,  and 
heard  the  terrible  snarl  which  he  gives  only 
when  he  is  sure  of  his  prey.  The  quality  of 
the  snarl  is  such  that  it  paralyzes  his  victim. 

Seeing  that  the  Englishman  could  do  noth- 
ing and  feeling  sure  that  he  would  be 
killed,  I  knew  I  had  to  do  something.  I 
stopped  swearing  and  with  one  terrible  yell 
gave  the  elephant  the  master  call.  He  went 
forward  and  put  his  trunk  around  a  very  thick 


WITHOUT   ANY   WARNING   THE   MAGISTRATE   FIRED 


The  Tiger  Hunt  103 

branch  of  a  tree  and  pulled  it  down  with  a 
great  crash.  That  instant  the  tiger  looked  at 
the  direction  from  which  the  noise  had  come. 
His  head  was  near  me  now,  and  he  did  not 
know  whether  to  attack  me  or  go  back  to  his 
former  prey.  It  seemed  as  if  hours  passed.  I 
was  petrified  with  terror,  yet  I  knew  that  if  I 
let  my  fright  get  possession  of  me,  I  would  be 
killed.  So  I  controlled  myself.  Kari  was  now 
trying  to  strike  the  tiger  with  this  trunk,  but  he 
could  not  get  at  him. 

Suddenly  I  realized  that  the  Englishman 
not  only  had  the  rifle's  length  between  him  and 
the  tiger  but  was  raising  the  rifle  to  take  aim. 
Knowing  this,  I  took  my  flute  and  hit  the 
tiger's  knuckles  with  it.  He  came  toward 
me  with  his  paw  outstretched  and  caught 
the  shawl  which  was  loosely  tied  around  my 
waist.  I  was  glad  to  hear  it  tear  because  he 
had  just  missed  my  flesh.  That  instant  I  saw 
the  Englishman  put  the  barrel  of  the  rifle  into 
the  tiger's  ear.  All  I  remembered  was  hot 
blood  spurting  over  my  face.  Kari  was  run- 


104  Kari  the  Elephant 

ning  away  with  all  his  might  and  did  not  stop 
until  he  had  crossed  the  clearing  and  disap- 
peared beyond  the  trees.  He  was  not  hurt, 
except  that  his  side  was  torn  here  and  there 
with  superficial  wounds.  When  the  beaters 
came,  I  made  the  elephant  kneel  down.  We 
both  got  off.  The  Englishman  went  to  see  how 
big  the  tiger  was  while  I  led  Kari  in  quest  of 
my  broken  flute.  Toward  sun-down  when  they 
had  skinned  the  tiger,  they  found  its  length 
to  be  nine  feet,  not  counting  the  tail. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
KARI  AND  THE  QUICK-SAND 


CHAPTER  VIII 
KARI  AND  THE  QUICK-SAND 

^  I  CHOUGH  elephants  are  very  unsel- 
fish animals,  they  behave  like  human 

-*-  beings  when  brought  to  the  last  ex- 
tremity. The  following  adventure  will  show 
you  what  I  mean. 

One  day,  Kari  and  Kopee  and  I  went  to  the 
river  bank  to  help  pull  a  big  barge  up  the  river. 
The  towmen  could  not  pull  the  ropes  hard 
enough  to  make  progress  against  the  current. 
All  that  they  could  do  was  to  stand  still  with- 
out getting  ahead  at  all.  So  word  was  sent 
on  to  us  and  we  three  went  to  help  out.  I 
harnessed  Kari  with  the  tow  rope.  It  was  very 
amusing,  as  he  had  never  pulled  a  weight  in  his 
life.  At  first  he  pulled  very  hard.  The  rope 
almost  broke  and  the  barge  swayed  in  the 
107 


io8  Kari  the  Elephant 

water,  almost  toppled,  and  then  drifted  to  its 
previous  position.  The  swift  current  was  go- 
ing against  it  and  the  people  in  the  barge  were 
shaking  their  hands  and  swearing  at  us  as  they 
were  afraid  that  the  vessel  would  capsize. 

Kari  did  not  care.  After  he  had  pulled  the 
barge  about  two  hundred  yards  he  stopped; 
the  rope  slackened  and  then  the  current  pulled 
against  us.  The  rope  became  taut  again 
and  the  men  shrieked  from  the  barge.  When 
you  tug  a  boat,  you  must  not  jerk  at  the  rope 
but  pull  it  gently,  so  I  urged  Kari  to  pull  it 
smoothly.  In  the  course  of  an  hour,  he  had 
actually  drawn  the  boat  in,  and  at  the  end  of 
our  journey  he  had  learned  to  pull  evenly. 

After  that  we  went  on  playing  on  the  river 
bank.  Kopee  jumped  off  the  elephant's  back 
and  ran  along  the  shore.  I  urged  Kari  to 
follow  him,  and  as  we  kept  on  going,  I  lost 
all  sense  of  direction  and  trusted  to  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  animals.  The  monkey,  however, 
had  led  us  into  a  trap.  We  had  run  into  quick- 
sand and  Kari  began  to  sink.  Every  time  he 


Karl  and  the  Quick-Sand      109 

tried  to  lift  his  feet  he  seemed  to  go  deeper 
into  the  mud  and  he  was  so  frightened  that  he 
tried  to  take  hold  of  the  monkey  with  his  trunk 
and  step  on  him  as  something  solid,  but  Kopee 
chattered  and  rushed  up  a  tree. 

Then  Kari  swung  his  trunk  around,  pulled 
down  the  mattress  from  his  back,  and  putting 
it  on  the  ground  tried  to  step  on  it.  That  did 
not  help,  so  he  curled  up  his  trunk  behind  to 
try  to  get  me  to  step  on.  Each  time  he  made 
an  effort  like  that,  however,  he  sank  deeper 
into  the  mud.  I  saw  the  trunk  curling  back 
and  creeping  up  to  me  like  a  python  crawling 
up  a  hillside  to  coil  around  its  prey.  There  was 
no  more  trumpeting  or  calling  from  the  ele- 
phant, but  a  sinister  silence  through  which  he 
was  trying  to  reach  me.  He  had  come  to  the 
end  of  his  unselfishness.  In  order  to  save  him- 
self, he  was  willing  to  step  on  me. 

The  monkey  screamed  from  the  tree-top  and 
I,  jumping  off  the  elephant's  back,  fell  on  the 
ground  and  ran.  Kari  kept  on  trumpeting  and 
calling  for  help,  and  by  this  time  he  was  chest 


no  Kari  the  Elephant 

deep  in  the  mud.  The  rear  of  him  had  not 
sunk  so  far,  so  he  was  on  a  slant  which  made  it 
all  the  more  difficult  for  him  to  lift  himself. 

I  ran  off  to  the  village  and  called  for  help. 
By  the  time  we  got  back  with  ropes  and  planks, 
he  was  holding  his  trunk  up  in  order  to  breathe, 
as  the  mud  was  up  to  his  chin.  There  was  only 
one  thing  to  do,  and  that  was  to  lift  Kari  by 
his  own  weight,  so  we  tied  the  rope  to  the  tree 
and  flung  it  to  him.  He  got  it  with  his  trunk 
and  pulled.  The  rope  throbbed  and  sang  like 
an  electric  wire  and  the  tree  groaned  with  the 
tension,  but  all  that  happened  was  that  the 
elephant  slipped  forward  a  little  and  his  hind 
legs  fell  deeper  into  the  mud. 

Now  he  was  perfectly  flat  in  quick-sand. 
But  something  very  interesting  had  taken 
place.  Now  that  he  was  holding  on  to  the  rope 
with  all  his  mortal  strength  we  knew  that  he 
would  not  let  go  of  it,  so  it  was  easy  to  go  near 
him  and  put  planks  under  him,  as  the  hind  part 
of  his  belly  had  not  yet  sunk  to  the  level  of  the 
mud.  At  last  he  stopped  sinking,  but  as  we 


Kari  and  the  Quick-Sand      in 

could  not  put  the  planks  under  his  feet  it  only 
meant  that  he  would  not  go  further  down  and 
smother  to  death. 

Now  that  his  head  was  lifted  and  there  was 
an  opening  between  him  and  the  mud,  the 
question  was  how  to  lift  the  front  part  of  his 
body  so  that  he  could  drag  the  rest  of  it  out. 
Another  elephant  had  to  be  called  in.  It 
turned  out  to  be  Kari's  mother  who  had  been 
given  to  the  neighboring  king.  By  the  time 
she  arrived,  however,  dusk  had  fallen  and  noth- 
ing could  be  done.  We  trusted  to  God  and 
left  him  to  his  quick-sand  for  the  night. 

The  next  morning  we  found  Kari  in  the 
same  position  as  the  previous  evening.  He  had 
relaxed  his  hold  on  the  rope  but  had  not  sunk 
deeper.  We  had  to  put  more  planks  all  around 
him  but  he  now  knew  that  he  should  not  attack 
anyone  because  we  were  trying  to  save  him. 
After  the  planks  had  been  tested,  his  mother 
went  up  to  him.  She  put  her  trunk  around  his 
neck  and  started  to  lift  him,  but  he  groaned 
with  pain  for  he  was  being  smothered.  He  be- 


112  Kari  the  Elephant 

gan  to  sink  again  and  we  just  had  time  to  put 
some  more  planks  between  his  chest  and  the 
mud. 

We  had  also  slipped  a  rope  under  him,  which 
some  men  in  a  boat  near  the  river  bank  came 
up  and  threw  over  his  back.  The  hawser  was 
made  into  a  loop  around  his  body  and  the  other 
end  was  tied  around  the  mother.  Then  she 
pulled  with  all  her  might,  and  her  strength  was 
so  great  that  his  fore-quarters  were  lifted  up 
and  his  small  legs  dangled  in  the  air.  He  was 
pulled  forward  quite  a  distance,  when  the 
hawser  broke  and  his  fore-legs  fell  on  the 
plank.  His  hind  legs  now  were  sinking  and 
we  were  terribly  frightened.  We  felt  as  if  we 
had  lost  him  again. 

The  situation  was  not  so  bad  as  we  thought, 
however,  as  it  was  very  easy  to  slip  another 
hawser  under  him.  This  time  we  made  a 
double  loop  around  him,  and  also  made  him 
hold  on  to  the  rope  around  the  tree  with  his 
trunk.  He  was  very  tired,  but  I  urged  him 
to  obey  me.  And  now  with  the  aid  of  his 


Kari  and  the  Quick-Sand      113 

mother,  he  managed  to  lift  the  rear  half  of  his 
body  and  put  first  one  leg  and  then  the  other 
on  the  plank.  A  great  shout  of  joy  went 
through  the  crowd  as  Kari  walked  on  to  solid 
ground.  That  instant  the  monkey  jumped 
down  from  the  tree  and  fell  on  Kari's  neck ;  he 
was  very  glad  to  see  his  friend  safe  again.  But 
Kari  was  in  no  humor  for  anyone's  caresses 
and  he  shook  Kopee  off.  The  first  thing  I  did 
was  to  pull  some  branches  from  a  tree  which 
Kari  devoured  hungrily.  A  hungry  elephant 
is  not  to  be  bothered  by  anyone. 

I  had  learned  my  lesson.  I  would  no  longer 
take  my  elephant  anywhere  and  everywhere 
at  the  behest  of  the  monkey,  for  monkeys  have 
no  judgment. 


CHAPTER  IX 
KARI'S  TRAVELS 


CHAPTER  IX 
KARI'S  TRAVELS 

SOMETIMES  Kari  was  used  for  travel. 
He  and  I  went  through  many  distant 
places  in  India  with  camel  caravans, 
carrying  loads  of  silver  and  gold,  spices  and 
fruits.  They  went  from  one  end  of  India  to 
the  other,  passing  through  hot  and  deserted 
cities  while  our  accustomed  way  when  not  in 
their  company  led  through  populous  places 
and  thick  jungle  regions.  Elephants  have  an 
advantage  over  camels  in  this  respect— gangs 
of  robbers  may  attack  a  camel  and  his  driver 
and  rob  him,  but  no  one  dares  to  attack  an 
elephant.  As  the  animals  of  the  jungle  do  not 
care  to  touch  an  elephant,  neither  do  wild  men 
in  desolate  places.  For  this  reason  they  gen- 
erally used  Kari  when  they  wanted  to  send 
117 


n8  Kari  the  Elephant 

pearls  and  other  jewels  from  one  place  to  an- 
other. 

Once,  we  were  given  the  king's  emerald  to 
carry.  It  was  as  big  as  the  morning  star,  and 
burned  when  the  glow  of  the  noon-day  sun 
was  upon  it.  Two  epics  were  carved  on  it — 
on  one  side  was  the  story  of  the  heroes,  and 
on  the  other  the  story  of  the  gods.  We  left 
the  city  and  passed  into  the  jungle.  Night 
came  on  apace  and  we  stopped. 

That  night  I  watched  the  jungle  as  I  had 
never  watched  it  before.  It  was  about  nine 
o'clock;  everything  was  dark  and  the  stars 
were  right  on  the  tips  of  the  trees.  Below  us 
in  the  foliage  the  eyes  of  the  jungle  were  look- 
ing upon  us.  Wherever  I  turned,  I  thought 
I  saw  eyes.  Kari  swayed  slightly  from  side 
to  side  and  fell  into  a  doze.  The  first  thing 
that  I  noticed  was  the  faint  call  of  a  night 
bird.  When  that  died  down,  the  hooting  owl 
took  it  up.  Then  it  passed  into  the  soft  wings 
of  the  bats  and  came  into  the  leaves,  and  you 
could  feel  that  noise  shimmering  down  the 


Karl's  Travels  119 

trees  like  water  in  a  dream  till,  with  gentle  un- 
dulations, it  disappeared  into  the  ground.  The 
wild  boar  could  be  heard  grazing.  Then  there 
was  silence  again. 

Out  of  the  blackness  then  came  the  green 
eyes  of  the  wild  cat  below  me  and,  as  my 
eyes  became  more  accustomed  to  the  darkness, 
I  saw  small,  beaver-like  animals  burrowing 
their  way  through  leaves  and  brushes.  I 
thought  I  saw  weasels  way  below,  and  in  the 
distance  I  felt  the  stag  disturbing  the  leaves 
of  small  plants.  Then  there  was  a  snarl  in  the 
jungle  and  these  gently  moving  sounds  and 
quivers  ceased.  An  aching  silence  came  over 
everything,  broken  only  by  strange  insect 
voices  like  the  spurting  of  water.  Very  soon 
the  call  of  the  fox  was  heard,  and  then  the 
groan  of  the  tiger,  but  that  passed.  As 
I  was  above  the  ground  the  odor  of  my 
breath  went  up  in  the  air,  and  the  animals 
never  knew  there  was  man  about.  Men  al- 
ways disturb  animals  because  they  hate  and 
fear  more  than  the  animals. 


120  Karl  the  Elephant- 

Little  by  little  the  sounds  died  down  and 
stillness  took  possession  of  the  jungle.  I  saw 
herds  of  elephants  go  into  the  water  to  bathe. 
They  did  not  make  the  slightest  sound;  their 
bodies  sank  into  the  water  as  clouds  dip  into 
the  sunset.  I  could  see  them  curling  their 
trunks  around  their  mates  and  plucking  lilies 
from  the  water  to  eat.  As  the  moon  with  its 
shadowy  light  had  risen,  I  seemed  to  be  look- 
ing at  them  through  a  veil  of  water.  Close  to 
the  shore  were  the  little  ones  stepping  into 
the  water  and  learning  how  to  breathe  quan- 
tities of  water  into  their  trunks  and  then  snort 
it  out  slowly  without  the  slightest  sound.  Soon 
their  bath  was  over,  but  the  only  way  you  could 
tell  that  they  had  bathed  was  by  hearing  drops 
of  water  like  twinkling  stars  fall  from  their 
wet  bodies  and  strike  the  leaves  on  the  ground. 
This  proved  too  much  for  Kari;  he  wanted 
to  follow  them.  I  had  a  hard  time  keeping 
him  away  from  the  herd,  and  despite  all  my 
urging,  he  ran  right  into  the  river.  His  mat- 
tress and  everything  that  was  tied  to  his  back 


Kari's  Travels  121 

was  wet  through  and  through  and  I  had  to 
swim  ashore.  If  the  emerald  had  not  been  tied 
to  my  neck,  it  would  have  been  lost  in  the  water. 
I  went  up  a  tree  and  waited  for  Kari  to  come 
out  of  the  water. 

After  I  had  sat  on  a  branch  a  little  while, 
I  saw  two  stony  eyes  watching  me.  I  looked, 
and  looked  and  looked;  a  cold  shiver  ran  up 
and  down  my  back,  but  I  was  determined  not 
to  fear  and  hate.  I  made  myself  feel  very 
brave  and  I  stared  right  back  into  the  shining 
eyes.  They  closed.  In  the  moonlight  I  could 
distinctly  see  the  head  of  a  cobra  lying  on  an- 
other branch  very  near  mine.  I  had  disturbed 
him  going  up.  I  knew  if  I  moved  a  little  he 
would  get  up  and  sting  me  to  death,  so  I  sat 
very  still. 

Soon  there  was  a  terrible  hooting  and 
calling  in  the  jungle.  I  heard  hoofs  stamped- 
ing in  the  distance.  The  noise  grew  louder 
and  louder  and  I  could  feel  a  vast  warm  tongue 
licking  the  cool  silence  of  the  night.  Then 
the  cobra  crawled  along  the  branch  to  the 


122  Kari  the  Elephant 

trunk  of  the  tree,  and  then  on  down  to  the 
ground.  I,  who  was  holding  to  the  trunk,  had 
to  sit  still  while  his  cold  body  passed  over  my 
finger.  But  I  was  determined  not  to  fear  and 
I  could  feel  the  silken  coolness  passing  over 
my  hot  hand.  In  an  instant  he  was  gone. 

Now  I  caught  sight  of  Kari  snorting  before 
me.  As  I  knew  something  had  taken  pos- 
session of  the  jungle,  I  jumped  on  his  back. 
While  we  hurried  along  we  heard  the  whining 
snarl  of  a  tiger,  not  the  call  of  hate  or  killing, 
but  the  call  for  protection,  swiftly  following 
our  lead.  Being  civilized,  we  instinctively 
knew  the  way  out  of  the  jungle  to  human 
habitation.  We  approached  the  village  which 
was  still  sleeping  in  the  morning  grayness,  and 
behind  us  saw  horny  deer,  leopards,  and  wild 
cats  rushing  after  us.  Then  the  boars  came 
after  us,  dashing  out  of  the  jungle  in  terror. 
Vast  clouds  of  blackness  were  rising  from  the 
horizon,  and  when  the  morning  light  grew 
more  intense,  I  realized  they  were  clouds  of 
smoke.  The  morning  breeze  was  warm  and  in 


Karl's  Travels  123 

a  short  time  the  smell  of  burning  leaves 
reached  me.  The  forest  was  on  fire. 

We  arrived  at  the  village  in  an  hour  and  a 
half.  The  sun  was  already  up.  The  leopards 
came  and  sat  near  the  houses  as  guileless  as 
children;  the  boars  snorted  and  ran  into  the 
rice  fields  to  hide.  The  tiger  came  and  sat  in 
the  open  and  watched  the  forest.  The  an- 
telopes and  the  deer  stood  in  the  ponds  and  on 
the  banks  of  the  river.  By  instinct  they  knew 
that  the  water  was  the  only  place  where  the 
fire  could  not  reach  them.  We  saw  flocks  of 
birds  flying  to  shelter.  Soon  we  saw  the  red 
tongue  of  fire  licking  the  grass  and  the  trees. 
A  terrible  heat  settled  upon  the  country-side. 

I  could  now  go  near  any  animal  and  touch 
him.  The  terrible  danger  which  was  common 
to  all  had  made  them  forget  their  relations 
with  each  other — that  of  hunter  and  prey. 
Tiger,  elephant  and  man  were  standing  near 
each  other.  All  had  a  sense  of  common  friend- 
ship, as  if  the  tiger  had  thrown  away  his 
stripes,  man  his  fear,  and  the  deer  his  sense 


124  Kari  the  Elephant 

of  danger.  We  all  looked  at  one  another, 
brothers  in  a  common  bond  of  soul  relation- 
ship. This  sight  made  me  realize  why  the 
Hindus  believe  that  each  plant  and  each  ani- 
mal, like  man,  has  a  golden  thread  of  spiritu- 
ality in  its  soul.  In  the  darkness  of  the  ani- 
mal's eyes  and  the  eloquence  of  man's  mind 
it  was  the  same  Spirit,  the  great  active  Silence 
moving  from  life  to  life. 

The  jungle  was  burning  to  cinders.  The 
tiger  hid  his  face  between  his  paws;  the 
wild  cats  curled  up,  hiding  their  faces.  None 
wanted  to  see  the  passing  of  the  terror.  Later 
in  the  afternoon  some  of  the  birds  that  were 
flying  aimlessly  around  were  drawn  by  the 
hypnotism  of  the  flames  into  the  jungle  where 
they  perished.  If  one  is  frightened  beyond 
his  control,  fear  possesses  him  so  that  he  loses 
all  consciousness  of  self -protection  and  he  is 
drawn  down  into  the  vortex  of  the  very  de- 
struction which  rouses  that  fear. 

The  more  I  watched  Kari  and  the  other 
animals,  the  more  I  came  to  understand  why 


Karl's  Travels  125 

Kari  and  I  loved  each  other.  We  had  a  soul 
in  common.  I  played  the  flute  for  him  and 
was  deeply  moved.  I  felt  that  if  I  could  be 
dumb  like  he,  I  could  understand  him  better. 
This  was  the  lesson  the  fire  taught  me:  do  not 
hate  and  fear  animals.  In  them  is  the  soul 
that  is  God,  as  it  is  also  in  us.  Behind  each 
face,  human  or  animal,  is  the  face  of  the  Christ. 
Those  who  have  eyes  to  see  can  always  find  it. 


CHAPTER  X 
KARI  IN  THE  LUMBER  YARD 


CHAPTER  X 
KARI  IN  THE  LUMBER  YARD 

NOT  long  after  this  Kari  was  sent  to 
the  lumber  yards.    It  was  very  in- 
teresting  to  see  that  he  learned  all 
the  tricks  of  the  lumber  trade  in  a  few  days. 
He  would  pull  heavy  logs  out  of  the  forest 
into  the  open,  lift  the  lighter  ones  with  his 
trunk  and  pile  them  up,  one  on  top  of  the 
other.    He  had  such  a  good  sense  of  symmetry 
that  his  piles  were  always  extremely  neat. 

Soon  an  older  elephant  came  to  help  him. 
Whenever  there  was  a  log  which  was  too  heavy 
for  Kari  to  lift,  they  would  each  take  one  end 
of  it  and  lift  it  on  the  lumber  wagon.  An 
elephant,  as  you  see,  can  do  the  work  of 
a  truck. 

We  had  reached  a  stage  in  the  history  of  the 
129 


130  Kari  the  Elephant 

world  when  motor  engines  did  a  large  part  of 
the  work  of  the  jungle.  The  elephants  would 
bring  the  lumber  from  the  forest  and  deposit 
it  near  these  engines  where  it  would  be  cut  into 
proper  lengths  and  then  thrown  out  again  to 
be  piled  up  by  the  elephants. 

The  mechanics  who  ran  these  engines  ate 
meat  and  drank  liquor.  It  is  very  strange  that 
when  Western  people  come  to  the  East,  they 
do  not  give  up  their  expensive  ways  of  living. 
Drinking  wine  and  eating  meat  is  one  thing  in 
cold  climates,  where  one  has  to  keep  warm,  but 
in  a  hot  climate  a  man  is  sure  to  go  to  pieces 
if  he  eats  and  drinks  much.  Kari  had  no  ob- 
jection to  wine  drinking,  but  he  did  not  like 
meat-eating  men  any  more  than  he  liked  meat- 
eating  tigers.  He  never  hated  them  or  feared 
them,  simply  he  somehow  did  not  enjoy  their 
company.  But  these  white  engineers  who 
came  from  afar  did  not  know  that  an  elephant 
had  a  soul. 

Kari  always  woke  up  at  half  past  five  and 
then  went  to  work.  Toward  noon  I  would 


Kari  In  the  Lumber  Yard     131 

bathe  him  and  put  him  in  his  shed.  Early  in 
the  afternoon  he  would  begin  to  work  again. 
Later  on  he  ate  lots  of  rice  of  which  he  was 
very  fond.  In  the  evening  I  would  tie  him  up 
in  his  shed  while  I  went  to  sleep  on  a  hammock 
outside. 

One  night,  I  heard  a  terrible  trumpeting. 
I  jumped  down  from  my  hammock  and  went 
into  Kari's  shed,  where  I  found  two  drunken 
engineers  lighting  matches  and  throwing  them 
at  him.  Kari,  who  was  afraid  of  fire,  as  all 
animals  are,  was  trumpeting  angrily.  I  pro- 
tested to  the  men,  but  they  were  so  drunk  that 
they  only  swore  at  me  and  went  on  flinging 
matches.  Seeing  that  there  was  nothing  else 
to  do,  I  loosened  all  his  chains  except  one,  and 
let  him  stay  there  tied  to  the  ground  by  one 
foot  only. 

An  elephant's  chain  is  generally  driven 
about  five  or  six  feet  into  the  ground  and  is 
then  covered  with  cement  and  earth.  An  ele- 
phant can  rarely  break  this  kind  of  chain,  but 
I  was  afraid  that  the  matches  might  set  tHe 


132  Kari  the  Elephant 

shed  on  fire,  and  I  trusted  Kari  more  than 
drunken  men.  I  knew  that  if  the  shed  caught 
fire  the  elephant  could  break  one  chain  if  he 
tried  hard  to  escape.  The  night  passed  with- 
out any  further  incident,  however. 

I  must  explain  why  animals  are  afraid  of 
fire.  Fire,  you  see,  is  the  one  thing  that  they 
can  never  fight.  They  are  not  afraid  of 
water,  as  most  of  them  can  swim,  but  if  they 
are  caught  in  fire,  they  are  generally  burned 
to  death.  For  this  reason  they  have  built  up 
a  protective  instinct  against  fire.  Whenever 
there  is  fire  of  any  sort,  they  run.  As  they 
have  seen  the  jungle  set  on  fire  from  time  to 
time  for  generations  and  generations,  the  sight 
of  fire  frightens  them  more  than  anything  else. 
As  long  as  they  have  inherited  this  fear  from 
their  ancestors,  it  is  very  wise  not  to  play  with 
fire  in  the  presence  of  animals.  If  an  animal 
as  powerful  as  an  elephant  were  frightened  by 
fire,  he  would  run  mad  and  do  the  greatest 
amount  of  mischief. 

One  noon  when  we  had  suspended  work  for 


Kari  in  the  Lumber  Yard     133 

lEe  day,  I  tied  Kari  in  his  shed  and  lay  'down 
in  my  hammock  to  rest.  Toward  late  after- 
noon, I  heard  the  same  terrible  trumpeting 
that  I  had  heard  before.  The  same  thing  had 
happened  again.  The  two  engineers,  being 
idle,  had  drunk  liquor  and  were  trying  to  tease 
the  animals  nearby.  The  shed  had  a  thatched 
roof  of  straw.  The  walls  were  of  clay,  but 
there  was  a  lot  of  bamboo  lying  on  the  floor. 
Kari  was  eating  twigs,  some  of  which  hap- 
pened to  have  dry  leaves. 

I  came  up  to  the  elephant,  and  seeing  what 
was  going  on,  told  the  white  men  to  stop  teas- 
ing him.  They  would  not  hear  of  it,  however. 
Just  then  I  saw  a  flame  rising  from  the  leaves. 
Kari  raised  his  trunk  and  trumpeted  fiercely. 
As  I  was  afraid  that  he  would  be  burned  to 
death,  I  hastened  to  loosen  his  chain  and  with 
one  terrible  trumpet  he  rushed  out  of  the  shed, 
trampling  down  one  of  the  drunken  men  and 
killing  him  instantly.  Kari  then  trumpeted 
more  and  more  loudly,  waving  his  trunk  and 
rushing  madly  around. 


134  Kari  the  Elephant 

Realizing  the  danger  we  were  in,  I  went  up 
a  very  heavy  banian  tree  out  of  Kari's  reach 
and  lay  among  the  leaves.  The  first  thing  he 
did  was  to  go  and  put  his  foot  on  the  automo- 
bile of  the  chief  engineer,  which  happened  to 
be  standing  outside  of  the  shed.  In  a  few 
minutes  there  was  nothing  but  a  mass  of 
twisted  steel  on  the  ground,  over  which  the 
elephant  danced  in  anger.  Then  he  saw  the 
chief  engineer  and  two  other  men  standing  on 
the  porch  of  a  bungalow.  He  rushed  at  them, 
but  they  knew  what  it  meant  to  have  a  mad 
elephant  about,  and  ran  into  the  house.  Kari 
then  pulled  down  part  of  the  thatched  roof  of 
the  bungalow  with  his  trunk,  and  finding  no 
one  there  made  straight  for  two  new  trucks 
that  had  only  been  in  use  a  fortnight  and  broke 
them  to  pieces.  Then  he  rushed  at  a  bull  which 
was  grazing  in  a  field,  and  wound  his  trunk 
around  his  neck.  The  bull  dropped  dead.  In 
a  few  moments  Kari  was  out  of  sight. 

For  a  fortnight  no  one  heard  anything  of 
him.  I  expected  him  to  return  to  me,  but  he 


IN  HIS  MADNESS  HE  MUST  HAVE  GONE  BACK  TO  THE  JUNGLE 


Kari  in  the  Lumber  Yard     135 

never  came  back.  Even  to  this  day  no  one 
knows  what  happened  to  him.  Evidently 
those  miserable  engineers  had  driven  him  out 
of  his  mind.  In  his  madness  he  must  have 
gone  back  to  the  jungle  and  by  the  time  he 
recovered  his  senses  was  so  lost  in  its  depths 
that  he  could  not  come  back.  When  his  mind 
returns  to  him,  an  elephant  can  never  remem- 
ber the  road  that  he  took  in  his  insanity,  and  if 
he  runs  very  far  into  the  jungle  he  may  never 
come  back  because  the  Spirit  of  the  jungle 
seizes  him.  Kari's  last  impression  of  human 
beings  must  have  been  so  terrible  that  when 
the  Spirit  of  the  jungle  asserted  itself  in  him, 
he  allowed  it  to  lure  him  away  forever  from 
the  habitations  of  men. 

That  is  how  it  came  about  that  I  lost  my 
friend  and  brother,  the  elephant.  Though  as 
an  animal  Kari  is  lost  to  me,  my  soul  belongs 
to  his  soul  and  we  shall  never  forget  each  other. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


SFP  2  fl  1983 


ACNOVO-i  1996 


Form  L9-Series  4939 


QL     795.       EAM89 


